Introducing the GDS AI Insights series

The AI Insights series is a new collection of articles published by the Government Digital Service (GDS). The articles will help government departments and public sector organisations implement and use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions effectively, safely and securely.

AI is at the heart of the government’s agenda to deliver change, sustained economic growth and improved public services. However, AI adoption comes with limitations and risks, and requires new skills and knowledge.

To help deliver this change, in January 2024 the Central Digital and Data Office (now GDS) published the Generative AI Framework for HMG. Given the growing use of AI in government and the pace of change in this field, we have since expanded and retitled the framework to encompass all current forms of AI. The updated AI Playbook for the UK Government provides fresh guidance on using a wider range of AI technologies.

AI Insights topics

This series complements the AI Playbook and its training resources by focusing on AI topics that were not discussed in the playbook. The series includes blogs, shorter spotlight articles, technical documents, and case studies written by government technologists and subject matter experts.

The articles are designed to clarify the terminology and concepts around AI and machine learning (ML), especially as they apply to the public sector. They also provide practical advice on how to implement AI solutions in the public sector, aiming to expand and keep up to date the government’s AI knowledge base. 

We will publish new articles every 2 months. Sometimes they will reflect new policy or technological developments.

The first will cover safeguarding and protection because the security of data is one of our most important principles. We will also discuss evaluation metrics and how large language model (LLM)-based systems can be quantified, profiled and measured. This includes how we can test these systems to evaluate their performance, ensure consistency, and detect drift or deviation in production deployments. 

We are currently researching other interesting topics including prompt engineering, chatbots, agentic systems and workflows. 

Who this series is for

The AI Insights are more technical than the AI Playbook, but they aim to be accessible to non-specialist audiences who want to learn more about AI technologies and concepts. 

Our goal is to inform our community, and we do not assume much prior knowledge or expertise. However, for some subjects readers will need to be familiar with technical and mathematical concepts. The introduction of each article provides a non-technical overview of the topic.

Other resources for your organisation

You should use the AI Insights articles alongside the guidance in the Artificial Intelligence Playbook for the UK Government and your organisation’s policies, ensuring that you have the right assurance in place.

To discuss practical implementation solutions, we encourage you to join the cross-government AI Community and the AI security group.

At the AI Community’s monthly meetings, people discuss what departments are doing in the field of AI. This covers topics ranging from AI ethics and security, to emerging uses of AI technologies. 

The AI security group brings together security practitioners, data scientists and AI experts who are interested in using AI technologies in government more safely and efficiently.