A podcast episode argues that the public debate over AI in the public service is a distraction from the real issue of reducing public sector workforce size, emphasizing that AI does not have the capacity to replace complex human roles and that workforce reform should be pursued独立
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And because AI is the new bogeyman that everybody should be afraid of, the media then became obsessed with the AI and started contacting ministers' offices and demanding to know what we're actually meant to do with the AI. And then the verdict was that many ministers weren't actually sure what they would be doing in their portfolios. And it is embarrassing in the same way that it's embarrassing watching your parents or your grandparents discuss that newfangled technology that's absolutely going to change our lives with no real grip on its uses and limitations because they don't actually use it. It feels like blaming the public servants cull in the 1980s on those new computer devices that we're going to replace all the workers, except we're all still working, we're just each using a computer device. Let's be honest about AI. Okay, for those of us who don't use it out there and go, what is this? AI is probably hugely overpromising. It probably is not going to do all the things and replace all the workers that you think it will. At the moment, it is just really good, mostly for summarising, drafting, searching documents, handling repetitive admin, and handling customer service. There are some really obvious applications for AI, like helping a beneficiary find all their entitlements by going through an AI kind of system on the computer without having to tie up a person on the phone for an hour. But AI cannot really be relied on for more complex tasks that you need humans for, like risk assessment or ethical judgments or political management. No one who actually uses AI thinks it's going to replace 8,700 jobs, or even a quarter of those jobs, or even a tenth of those jobs. Having this debate actually feels quite silly. The public service numbers need to come down with or without AI. AI doesn't have to be part of this debate. We have 16,000 more public servants than we did nine years ago and no one's getting any better service. So you don't need all those people. That is the AI. That is the that is the argument. AI here is just a distraction.
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ai lacks genuine comprehension despite surface-level mimicry
Artificial intelligence’s limited ‘intelligence’overpromising in automation and task replacement
Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: AI is just a distraction in the public service discussionSocial-media signal on the same topic, drawn from the social lens. Engagement is likes + 2×shares + 3×replies, the same weighting used across the digest cards. View on /social →
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