Blair calls for integrating AI into government work — The National
In the United Kingdom, former Prime Minister Tony Blair called on governments to make artificial intelligence a key element of strategic analysis, threat assessment and political decision-making. The National reports, citing a report by the Tony Blair Institute.
AI for analysis and modelling
The report, Leading in the Age of AI: How to Build an AI-Enabled State, proposes creating AI-based strategic analytics and modelling systems within central government bodies. They are intended to help identify threats, test the likely consequences of policy decisions and give leaders a clearer understanding of the available courses of action.
The document’s authors stress that technology should strengthen human political judgment rather than replace it. AI can help leaders understand the possible options and consequences of different decisions, but it cannot determine which risks a state should accept.
The report also provides for the creation of secure shared data systems for information exchange between agencies. It separately addresses institutional memory, which will retain decisions made and lessons learned.
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Concerns about the technology
Blair said that countries unable to absorb major technological changes will suffer significant and cumulative losses. In his view, AI can expand access to scarce expertise for developing countries and, in developed countries, help break the cycle of rising taxes and spending that does not always improve public services.
At the same time, a YouGov survey showed significant distrust among Britons regarding the development of the technology. One in three respondents named AI among the three most likely causes of humanity’s extinction, while a year earlier 15% of respondents held that view. More than half of the study’s participants consider AI’s overall impact negative, three quarters believe companies in this field are insufficiently regulated, and 78% do not trust them to develop the technology responsibly.
According to the survey, four out of five Britons also do not trust governments’ ability to regulate this industry effectively, while 61% support slowing the pace of AI development. The report states that risks, including mass unemployment and AI-enabled biological attacks, must be taken into account, but governments should also not fall behind in adopting the technology.
