Laura Carter

The public doesn’t want AI ‘mainlined into the veins’ of the UK: at least not when it comes to the public sector.

How do we know? Well, my former colleagues at the Ada Lovelace Institute have been asking them. Over the last six years, Ada has done a lot of research into what the public want from data and AI. Earlier this year, they asked me to help pull together findings from their work with 16,000 people in four nationwide attitudinal surveys and 400 people in deeper qualitative studies, to help answer the question of how the general public wants the UK public sector to use AI.

Here's what we found:

1. There is no single view of AI: public perceptions are nuanced and context-dependent. People assess tools in context and can identify the benefits, opportunities, risks and harms of individual AI use cases.

2. Experiences and demographics shape people’s expectations. People’s understanding, trust and comfort with AI are affected by their personal characteristics, as well as their direct and indirect experiences of technology and the institutions using it. These experiences can exacerbate concerns about AI’s impact on existing inequalities.

3. Private profits, public doubts: there are concerns about the power and profits of technology companies in public services. This intersects with concerns around transparency, regulatory powers and access to data.

4. Support is conditional: the public want evidence, explainability and involvement. The public value explainability above accuracy when it comes to AI tools, and they expect clear evidence on efficacy and impacts to justify use. There is a desire for those affected to have meaningful involvement in shaping decisions about public sector AI.

5. Strong governance is a prerequisite for trust. The public increasingly ask for stronger governance of AI, along with clear appeals and redress processes if something goes wrong. The public are not convinced existing regulations are adequate to ensure that public sector AI works for everyone, supports public good and prioritises people over profit.

6. Social impact matters: the public oppose uses of AI that could create a ‘two-tier society’. Discrimination and bias are important concerns, especially in essential services, and people expect AI in the public sector to accommodate pluralism and diversity.

The public is more than capable of understanding different use cases, implementations and outcomes, and they care if, where and how public sector AI is used. Public legitimacy matters: if the UK government wants to roll out AI across the public sector, it is important that it’s done properly.

You can read the whole report here.