Responsible AI  for government decision making

Targeted, data-driven decisions are key to delivering better outcomes to citizens, but neither humans nor AI can make the leap alone.

Mind Foundry partnered with the Scottish Government in building an explainable AI that aligns with Scotland’s AI strategy. The system allows people of varying technical experience to understand how and why AI impacts decision making, and further work within the system to make better, more understandable decisions.

Every decision made in the public sector can affect large numbers of people and even something simple, like reading a form that has been filled out on paper, can have negative impacts if not carefully managed. It is therefore vital that systems are carefully designed and explained, such that problems can be avoided, and systems garner support. To deliver this, the Scottish Government needed a trusted partner with a principled approach to ethics and explainability.

Mind Foundry developed a framework powered by its intelligent decision architecture which allows technical and non technical users alike to work with the system in understanding how AI was used and impacted results. In addition, the system naturally enables data driven decision making in collaboration with AI. The transformative partnership potential of human-AI collaboration will allow experts in many fields including education, healthcare and planning to realise the significant power and value of AI automation, while retaining control, oversight and understanding.

Mind Foundry’s solution provides more flexibility, discipline and safety than traditional paradigms such as human-on-the-loop, human-in-the-loop, and black-box modelling, and means that workers will be able to focus on higher-impact work in building a safer Scotland.

Albert King, Chief Data Officer (CDO) for Scotland, describes how the work we're doing with Scotland is informing the nation's AI Strategy. We then proceeded to share our progress on the project at the exclusive CogX event.