The UK government has unveiled a new programme aimed at recruiting the nation’s leading AI experts into public service. This initiative is supported by a £750,000 grant from Meta to the Alan Turing Institute. The 12-month AI Fellowship is designed to enhance the agility of the state in delivering its “Plan for Change,” leveraging open-source tools to manage costs effectively.
Fellows will join the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI), focusing on building tools using Meta’s Llama 3.5 and other open-source models. Potential applications for these AI tools span various high-security public sector use cases, such as language translation in national security contexts, or optimising construction planning data to expedite approval processes. They could also contribute to expanding “Humphrey,” a suite of AI tools that assists civil servants in responding more efficiently to ministerial requests by automating administrative burdens like summarising documents, taking notes, and compiling consultation responses.
This fellowship announcement coincides with the news that “Caddy,” an AI assistant developed to help call centre workers by providing key information from guidance documents, has been open-sourced. Caddy, initially tested by Citizen’s Advice in partnership with the government, is now being adopted by central government for the first time. A Cabinet Office team is utilising it to rapidly access expert guidance on grant decisions, aiming to improve speed, consistency, and value for money. Early tests across 1,000 calls demonstrated that Caddy could halve response times, with 80% of its generated responses being ready for use without revisions.
The government has also announced the launch of the next phase of the AI Knowledge Hub, a platform designed to share real-world examples, tools, and tips to assist teams in deploying AI effectively. The Hub aims to facilitate inter-departmental learning, prevent duplication of effort, and enable the transition from small pilot projects to tangible results. New features, including a “Prompt Library,” will be added as part of this next phase to help teams use AI to boost daily productivity and deliver faster, improved public services.
Speaking at Google Cloud’s London event, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle openly expressed his ambition for closer collaboration with major tech companies. He announced a new partnership with Google Cloud, aimed at freeing taxpayers from the burden of expensive “ball and chain” legacy tech contracts. Google is also reportedly focusing on becoming the preferred platform for developing all AI models, including open-source ones like those from Meta.
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