Whitehall’s ambition to cut costs using AI is fraught with risk

A picture


A Dragons’ Den-style event this week, where tech companies will have 20 minutes to pitch ideas for increasing automation in the British justice system, is one of numerous examples of how the cash-strapped Labour government hopes artificial intelligence and data science can save money and improve public services,Amid warnings from critics that Downing Street has been “drinking the Kool-Aid” on AI, the Department of Health and Social Care this week announced an AI early warning system to detect dangerous maternity services after a series of scandals, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he wants one in eight operations to be conducted by a robot within a decade,AI is being used to prioritise actions on the 25,000 pieces of correspondence the Department for Work and Pensions receives each day and to detect potential fraud and error in benefit claims,Ministers even have access to an AI tool that is supposed to provide a “vibe check” on parliamentary opinion to help them weigh the political risks of policy proposals,Again and again, ministers are turning to technology to tackle acute crises that in the past might have been dealt with by employing more staff or investing more money.

The push to digitise government, which is led by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and his science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, has brought the government into close contact with the biggest US tech companies.Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM and Amazon were all in attendance at a Ministry of Justice roundtable discussion last month.Starmer and Kyle are not alone.Countries from Singapore to Estonia have been increasingly embracing AI in public service delivery.Jeegar Kakkad, a director at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change – one of the organisations arguing for greater use of technology and which is part-funded by tech firms – put the argument like this: “Our systems are broken.

They cannot keep up with demand.You have a couple of choices: keep trying to make a broken system work with traditional approaches – more money, more immigrants to fill the gap in the workforce – or you have to use technology.“I think the answer is technology, but we have to make sure we have agency in how we design these systems, they are human-designed and we put rules in place.”Kyle has recently been at pains to stress that the government is doing everything it can to enable big tech firms to thrive in Britain.At London Tech Week last month, he told executives about regulation and planning policies designed to make their businesses run better, saying: “All of this adds up to a government that is on your side.

”When it comes to injecting technology into public services, ministers face a choice: whether to “build or buy”,The temptation is often to issue contracts to private companies to achieve the fastest and greatest impact,For the tech companies, a huge pot of revenue is at stake,The value of UK public sector tech contracts rose to £19,6bn last year, up from £14.

4bn in 2019, according to Tussell, which researches government contracts.But introducing AI and automation into public services is riskier than using it to help drivers navigate busy roads or recommending songs to music fans.When citizens interact with public services they are often at their most vulnerable.For example, last week the Ada Lovelace Institute, an independent research body, found that 59% of the public were concerned about the idea of AI being used to assess welfare eligibility, compared with 39% of people worried about the use of facial recognition technology in policing.And the public is also showing signs of concern about the motivations of private technology companies.

The same polling found the public was significantly less likely to trust private companies to deliver technology that could assess welfare eligibility or predict the risk of cancer than government bodies (although governments are less trusted than academics and not-for-profits).The institute urged MPs to launch a review of the “role of technology companies and the bodies funded by them in shaping the policy and media narrative on the benefits of public sector AI; and the effectiveness of existing measures that aim to tackle conflicts of interest and ‘revolving door’ dynamics between government and the technology sector”.It said: “At a time when AI is being offered as a solution to a wide range of public sector problems, the public are concerned about the motivations of private sector involvement.The public expects transparency and that public sector AI prioritises people over profit.”
A picture

Frittata, ‘egg and chips’ and a bean feast: Sami Tamimi’s brunch recipes from Palestine

What better way to welcome the weekend than with the smell and sound of herb-loaded ijeh frying? This is a thick, delicious frittata-like mixture of courgettes, leeks, peas, herbs and eggs, and in Palestine it’s often made with finely chopped onions, too. I always keep a couple of tins of ful (fava beans) in my pantry for those times when I crave a quick and satisfying late breakfast or weekend lunch. When simple toast and butter won’t do the trick and I’m in need of something more substantial and savoury, that’s when fava beans come to the rescue.You can substitute the eggs with feta for an extra-creamy and salty touch. Alternatively, the dish works beautifully as a vegan dish without the eggs

A picture

Jam tarts and summer pudding cake: Nicola Lamb’s recipes for baking with mixed berries

First up, a crostata-inspired jam tart that’s perfect for afternoon tea or nibbling throughout the day. Fennel seeds in the buttery pastry give a subtle flavour surprise, although you could omit them, or try coriander seeds or ginger instead. A small batch of jam is surprisingly quick to make, but you can, of course, use shop-bought, or make use of one of those jars living rent-free in your cupboard. Then, a summer pudding-inspired cake that makes a delightful centrepiece – the juices from the berries absorb into the top third of the sponge, giving it a gorgeous, ombre tone that looks as beautiful as it tastes.Use a mixture of whatever berries are plentiful; frozen will work well, too

A picture

Georgina Hayden’s recipe for spiced crab egg fried rice

Crab deserves to be celebrated, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a super-fancy, laborious meal. Crab midweek? Yes, please, and fried rice is my fallback whenever I am in a dinner pickle. That’s not to belittle its deliciousness, complexity or elegance, though, because this spiced crab version can be as fancy as you like. That said, the speed and ease with which I can create a meal that I know everyone will love is the winning factor. Plus, I often have leftover cooked, chilled rice in the fridge, anyway, which is always the clincher (cooked rice has a better texture for frying once chilled)

A picture

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for courgette linguine with trout, lemon and dill | Quick and easy

This is such a lovely, summery dish: it takes under 30 minutes from start to finish, and I found it immensely reviving after a long day. The grated courgette melts into the pasta, and works perfectly with the lemon, trout and a hit of chilli. If you have one of those multi-nut and seed mixes (the M&S 35-plant one is excellent), by all means add a scoop to finish; otherwise, a scattering of toasted pine nuts will add a welcome crunch. An elegant dinner for two.Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 22 trout fillets 2½ tbsp olive oilSea saltJuice and finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus 2 lemon slices180g linguine 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated1 tsp chilli flakes1 large courgette, trimmed and coarsely grated10g fresh dill, roughly chopped 4 tbsp pine nuts, or 4 tbsp omega nut and seed mixHeat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6

A picture

Bangkok Diners Club, Manchester M4: ‘This will soon be one of Manchester’s hottest dining tickets’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Bangkok Diners Club feels a bit as if it’s tucked down a humid Rattanakosin sidestreet in the Thai capital’s old town, rather than in a room above a pub 6,000 miles away in Ancoats, Manchester. Husband-and-wife team Ben and Bo Humphreys have brought their joint skills to the Edinburgh Castle, an elegantly restored 19th-century pub with an upstairs restaurant that in recent years has made quite a name for itself; before the Humphreys’ arrival, this same space was the lair of Winsome’s Shaun Moffat, where plaudits and gongs were in ready supply, but then Moffat got his hands on his own place and this upstairs room needed a pair of cool, capable hands to take over.Look no further than Ben and Bo, who have a pedigree in forward-thinking Thai cuisine. Bo was born and raised in Thailand’s north-eastern Isaan region, before moving to Bangkok in her teens, while Ben has cooked at Manchester’s Thai fusion restaurant District and, before that, at Tattu, Rabbit in the Moon and Lucky Cat. After the closure of District in 2022, the couple spent three years eating their way across Thailand and the US, picking up inspiration for dishes in which authentic Thai flavours, and occasionally Bo’s family-favourite recipes, could merge with the Korean and Mexican barbecue flavours of Miami smokehouses

A picture

How to make coffee and walnut cake – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Today is my birthday, so I’m celebrating with a classic that, for all the sticky tres leches and sophisticated sachertortes I’ve enjoyed in recent years, remains my absolute favourite, my desert island cake: that darling of the WI tea tent, the coffee and walnut sandwich. The great Nigel Slater once named it his last meal on Earth, and I’m hoping to have it for tea.Prep 30 min Cook 25 min Serves 8225g room-temperature butter 4 tbsp instant coffee (see step 1)100g walnut halves 4 eggs 225g soft light brown sugar 225g plain flour 3 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp fine salt Milk (optional)For the icing165g room-temperature butter425g icing sugar ¼ tsp salt 4 tbsp double cream (optional)If you’ve forgotten to get your butter out of the fridge, begin by dicing and spacing it out on the paper to soften (remember, you’ll need some for the icing, too).Mix the coffee with two tablespoons of boiling water and leave to cool – I like the nostalgic flavour of instant coffee here, but you can substitute three tablespoons of espresso or other strong coffee, if you prefer.Toast the walnut halves in a dry pan until they smell nutty, then set aside a quarter of the most handsome-looking ones to use as decoration later