The UK Cabinet Office is harnessing the skills of artificial intelligence (AI) to cut the size of the civil service and slash its multi-billion pound wages bill.
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and Cabinet Office secretary, announced his plans to expand the use of AI to drive efficiencies across all government and public sector institutions in an address to reporters on Wednesday.
Dowden said adopting AI could be a “significant downward driver” in reducing the civil service headcount, with the government looking to cut 66,000 jobs by the end of the next Spending Review.
His prediction of AI domination comes as the rest of the world rushes down a similar path with mixed results.
For example, allowing AI a role in decisions about welfare abuse and asylum claims would be controversial given the way algorithms have been shown to amplify racial bias, the Financial…
