Artificial intelligence can help rebuild trust in politics, David Lammy claims

The use of artificial intelligence can boost trust in the state and tackle problems with the “bloated” public sector, David Lammy said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the AI “revolution” would cut through Whitehall bureaucracy.

He said parts of the public sector had become “too expensive” and productivity was still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels but AI had the potential to change that.

In a speech at OpenAI’s Frontiers conference in London, Mr Lammy said: “Governments and corporations who seize AI faster and more robustly will surge ahead and those that hesitate will fall very quickly behind.

“I’m also convinced that if used well – emphasis on used well – AI can help to rebuild trust in the state, badly needed trust in our politics, delivering what people really want: shorter waits, fewer errors, lower costs and better outcomes.”

He added: “Parts of our bureaucracy have become bloated, they have become too expensive, they have become too unproductive, to the point that too often they fail to meet the needs of the people that they’re meant to serve.

“And, let’s be frank, public sector productivity is still lagging, certainly behind pre-pandemic levels, and that’s not good for anybody. It’s certainly not good for the people of our country.”

He said AI was already being used to transform public services, from analysing responses to consultations to helping triage patients with cancer.

“If we get this right, if we embed AI across government, across every system, across every service, I believe that we can rejuvenate 150 years of British state enterprise in the next 15 years, possibly even sooner,” he said.

Mr Lammy said more than 1,000 probation officers will now be equipped with an in-house AI tool that records and transcribes conversations with offenders to cut administrative work.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI will store data on British soil for the first time under a new Government deal aimed at bolstering security for businesses in the face of mounting global cyber threats.

The Government hopes the agreement will help to unlock investment from companies by providing them with the confidence that their data is being managed securely in the UK.

It comes after a wave of cyber attacks targeting major UK businesses over the past year, including Jaguar Land Rover and retailers such as Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.