Digitally transforming government: MoJ and GDS on using mobile devices and GenAI to help people | Computer Weekly
Summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is experimenting with developing a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool to make the information contained within the 700,000 pages of the Gov.uk website more accessible to end-users. GDS CEO Tom Read made the admission during a fireside chat with Ministry of Justice CDIO Gina Gill at the 2024 Tech Show London on Wednesday 6 March 2024, where the pair discussed at length the transformative impact technology can have on users of government services. As an example, Gill shared details of how the prison system is being digitally transformed to make its day-to-day operations less reliant on paper-based forms and processes. During the fireside chat session, Read talked about the work GDS is doing with generative AI (GenAI) to make the Gov.uk web pages more accessible and interactive for users so they can get the information they want about government services much faster. So, we’re building a generative AI that will allow people to ask questions to government in their own language and get simple answers back.” While Read did not go into detail about how long the chatbot has been in development, he said the tool is definitely not ready for release yet, because it’s still hallucinating “five-to-seven percent” of the time by “making up URLs” when asked to share website links with users.