Public Sector AI Task Force Meeting November 2024
Details
The Scottish Public Sector AI Task Force brings the conversations around AI together and deliver concrete actions to support the safe adoption of AI across government.
Minutes
Welcome and updates - AI Policy, Scottish Government
Lesley Fraser, the Director General for Corporate in SG, was welcomed to the meeting.
UK Government have launched an AI Assurance tool to assist businesses in evaluating and mitigating risks associated with AI. The platform will offer guidance and resources, including self-assessment tools, to help organisations conduct impact assessments, evaluate AI systems and identify potential bias in data.
Skills Development Scotland is working with ODAG Consultants to support the development of new National Occupational Standards (NOS) for the use of Generative AI tools in the workplace.
Opening Remarks – Lesley Fraser
Responsible for the digital portfolio including corporate transformation and ensuring people are empowered.
Data and AI are a key driver for efficiency and improvement across the public sector and interested to learn about opportunities for collaboration and new ways of working.
Whilst utilising AI technologies to increase efficiency across the public sector, it is paramount that we have good governance and transparency in place when working with public data.
Presentations
Scottish AI Register - AI Policy, Scottish Government
Development of the AI governance model and risk assessment tool, which sits behind the AI register, continues.
Offering practical tools and guidance the governance system will assist user is identifying, recording and reporting on all stages of AI development.
A reminder that the AI Register has been given a Ministerial mandate for its use in recording AI use cases across the public sector, contact ai@gov.scot with any questions.
Linked datasets – Police Scotland
With collaboration from The Data Lab, Phd students were tasked with comparing knife wound data between Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
This would bring together both data sets and create an over arching data set on knife wound incidents in Scotland.
This project required manual coding as incidents were unable to be matched automatically due to differing terminology.
Once the data had been classified, an AI algorithm could be used to speed up the data matching process, but this was not as accurate as the deterministic method.
This is a powerful example of ensuring robust data governance is in place before AI can be deployed.
Scottish AI Playbook – Scottish AI Alliance
The AI playbook is a key deliverable of Scotland’s AI Strategy, with the first iteration developed in March 22.
Through extensive consultation and workshops with stakeholders, the newest version of the playbook is now focussed on supporting the business community.
Through an online community and peer to peer networks, the playbook is being co-created with specific topics after gaps in information and guidance have been identified.
This approach enables more of a curated approach to resources and actively directs organisations to trusted resources, which is easily digestible and accessible.
An iterative approach is being taken and an ongoing call out for the private and third sector organisations to continue to help shape the resources.
Closing Remarks – Lesley Fraser
Absolutely fascinating presentations which highlight the importance of ensuring strong data governance process are in place and Scotland’s businesses are supported.
Through our conversations today, it is evident to see that there is a considerable amount of work going on within the Scottish Government and the wider public sector to make better and more efficient use of data and AI technologies
The world is changing around us at pace and Covid taught us that we do have the skills and knowledge to do and offer more when required and I hope to see that digital development continues and grows across Scotland.
Working Groups
Security
Space to discuss AI as both an opportunity and a threat in relation to delivering secure systems and organisations. Can AI help us better identify fraud or systems at risk, and how can we protect our organisations from the risk which AI enabled attacks pose.
Business
Group to discuss how we might best support businesses and people as processes become increasingly AI driven. Also to consider innovation and how we might promote Scotland’s businesses and share our developments with the world.