🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

'Tech has the power to create a better society, but it’s unlikely to happen if AI is unleashed upon us. Taking the time to do things right isn’t anti-innovation: it's what is required to get deep-rooted change in social systems' My piece for The New Statesman newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

"It’s a moment for the rise of a new and unlikely star in government: the procurement manager" newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1… Hetan Shah

“Public services are complex systems, & rushing to bolt on unproved technology is unlikely to work. The UK does not have a good track record here and the danger is we will see the same kinds of IT transformation project failures that have been commonplace” newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

"AI needs to work for the people who are worst off in society...the needs of the poor or disabled won't be well embedded in AI models." We agree with Hetan Shah, the AI revolution must benefit everyone. #ResponsibleHandover Full article👇

‘It’s a moment for the rise of a new and unlikely star in government: the procurement manager. While AI may seem like magic, in fact much of its power is in the data that algorithms are trained on.’ newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

Lots of common sense here from Hetan Shah, a good counterpoint to hype from people with something to sell & magical thinking on the part of people who don't really understand AI. I'm sure AI will be a crucial part of many public services - but it will require a lot of care,

If you've read about the Blue Zones, or seen the Netflix series, then this is for you. A great example of why it's so important to ask the right questions (and how often wishful thinking leads people not to do so): theconversation.com/the-data-on-ex…

'During a period of tight public finances, digitisation can sometimes be seen as a code word for cost-cutting: let’s lose the messy interactions with citizens and get them to deal with us through an app.' newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

The Living Planet Index headlines with a 73% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970 but that is easy to misinterpret. Around half of the studied populations are decreasing; the rest are increasing or stable ourworldindata.org/2024-living-pl…

‘The very people whose lives a Labour government would wish to transform through public services are the ones most likely to be passed over by the AI revolution. It is likely they will not be well represented in the data that algorithms are trained on’ newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

The Vice Chancellor at University of Oxford makes the case for ‘proof of concept’ funding to enable more research commercialisation on.ft.com/3BFsg6G

A thoughtful post that makes the point about using AI effectively. Sprinkling AI stardust over a poor data infrastructure is a sure fire recipe for failure.

Thanks to Jagjit S. Chadha for his great work in leading National Institute of Economic and Social Research to cast light on tricky economic challenges over the last eight years niesr.ac.uk/news/jagjit-ch…

'The UK does not have a good track record here and the danger is we will see the same kinds of IT transformation project failures that have been commonplace over the years in the public sector.' newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1… The New Statesman

Yes! Every word of this applies as much if not more to Global Partnership partners across Africa & Latin America too.

‘Procurement managers need to recognise the very significant value of data the state has amassed, and which the tech titans are hungry for. This provides negotiating power – it should not just be given away.’ newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1… The New Statesman

‘If it takes the hype of AI to give political cover to this kind of important investment in basic IT and data systems, then so be it.’ Last call for my The New Statesman piece on AI in public services newstatesman.com/comment/2024/1…

Yoo hoo. We are all on Bluesky - come find us there

If you haven’t already, it’s a good weekend to set up an account on Bluesky. It feels like it used to on here. My handle there is the same as here