A senior executive at East Riding of Yorkshire Council has called on the authority to seize the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence while ensuring strict ethical safeguards are established.
A senior executive at East Riding of Yorkshire Council has called on the authority to fully embrace the opportunities presented by the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
Paul Simpson, the Interim Executive Director of Corporate Resources at the council, believes the emerging technology could revolutionise how the local authority operates. He has spoken out in support of a new strategy that would allow the council to harness artificial intelligence to streamline its operations.
While acknowledging the need for caution, the senior executive highlighted that many other local authorities across the country are already taking the technology very seriously. He believes that with the right approach, the East Riding can benefit from increased capacity and enhanced systems:
"We are looking to obviously take advantage of this, this new technology, and to ensure that it's introduced in a fair and reasonable way that we put in place the necessary safeguards, but it also presents a fantastic opportunity to use this new technology to drive efficiency and improvements in the systems and processes across East Riding, and to take advantage of the additional capability and capacity that this new technology which is and it's developing at a rate of knots. [I] absolutely welcome the strategy. I think it's a really positive step forward for East Riding to take advantage of something that many councils up and down the country are taking advantage of and looking at very seriously."
Despite the enthusiasm for the operational benefits, there is a strong focus on ensuring the technology is deployed responsibly. The implementation of artificial intelligence often raises concerns regarding fairness and the potential for algorithmic bias.
To address these concerns, it has been proposed that rigorous checks and balances are established within the council. Speaking at a recent scrutiny meeting, the interim director drew upon his previous experience in local government to suggest a framework for overseeing the use of artificial intelligence.
He recommended the formation of a dedicated ethics board to monitor how algorithms might affect residents across the East Riding. This board, he suggested, could be overseen by a senior governance figure, such as the Monitoring Officer, to ensure strict compliance and community protection.
Detailing his proposals for an ethical framework, Paul Simpson said:
"One of the things that we're talking about is ensuring that we have an ethical approach to the implementation of AI. As I said at scrutiny [meetings], in my last organisation, we had an ethics board that checked upon the impact that this was going to have on local communities in terms of the algorithms that are being used as part of the technology. That board was chaired by the Council's Monitoring Officer, and I would suggest that we have something similar in place in East Riding to ensure the necessary safeguards are in place to protect both the organisation and local communities from any untoward issues that might arise through the use of the technology."
If the strategy is adopted alongside these proposed safeguards, East Riding of Yorkshire Council hopes to safely navigate the complexities of artificial intelligence, protecting both the organisation and the public from any unforeseen issues.
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