Pilot: UK
Public procurement can be an important driver of government adoption of AI. This means not only ensuring that AI-driven technologies offering the best value for money are purchased, but also driving the ethical development and deployment of innovative AI systems.
Government as a powerful market player can set standards when it comes to the ethical development of technologies and has done so in cybersecurity and cloud policy in recent years.
The UK is a global leader in AI and I am pleased we are working with the World Economic Forum and international partners to develop guidelines to ensure its safe and ethical deployment. By taking a dynamic approach we can boost innovation, create competitive markets and support public trust in artificial intelligence. I urge public sector organizations around the world to adopt these guidelines and consider carefully how they procure and deploy these technologies.
—Caroline Dinenage, Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Government of the UK
Public procurement has been shown to deliver strategic goals in areas such as environment and human rights and offers an attractive tool for policy-makers to address wider societal issues.
Nevertheless, it is not straightforward and careful development of processes and incentives need to be considered to achieve strategic maturity of commercial actions.
This document summarizes and analyses the pilot of the guidelines carried out in the United Kingdom.
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Find out more about the experiences from teams in the UK's Food Standards Agency and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.