An artificial intelligence (AI) tool has been used for the first time in the UK to analyze public comments about botox and lip fillers submitted during a government consultation.
The AI tool was deployed to process responses to a Scottish government consultation focused on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. Officials reported that the tool’s analysis closely matched the findings produced by human reviewers.
Named "Consult," the tool is expected to relieve civil servants from labor-intensive tasks like sifting through thousands of consultation responses, potentially saving taxpayers around £20 million.
Consult is part of a broader suite of planned AI-powered government tools collectively referred to as "Humphrey," a nod to the clever senior civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby from the 1980s television show Yes, Minister, which often critiqued government bureaucracy.
In the trial phase, the AI processed 2,000 consultation submissions. Public consultations can receive tens of thousands of responses, so automating the review process could significantly reduce time and effort. The AI was able to identify themes, count relevant responses, and categorize them. Human reviewers verified its work throughout the process.
The results produced by Consult were then compared with those of a human analysis team to assess the AI's accuracy.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle stated that Consult’s success in the trial means it will be used across government agencies in the near future.
"With these promising results, Humphrey will help us reduce the costs of governance and make it easier to gather and review expert and public input on important matters," Kyle said.
The government anticipates that adopting AI more widely across the public sector could lead to savings of up to £45 billion.
Although still in the trial phase, the government emphasized that additional evaluation is underway before a broader rollout. There will always be human oversight to review the AI's performance.
Officials also addressed concerns surrounding AI tools, particularly the tendency to "hallucinate" or generate false information. In this case, the narrow scope of the task helps minimize that risk.
The government acknowledged that large language models can exhibit bias, as they learn from human-generated data that may contain prejudices. However, they noted that Consult has helped reduce overall bias by limiting the influence of individual analysts' subjective interpretations.
The tool has been tested for its ability to interpret responses with spelling mistakes and other minor errors. Currently, it only supports English, so comments submitted in other UK languages such as Welsh must first be translated.
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