Inequalities: What is the likelihood of impacts on different demographic groups and how that will affect equality of opportunity? Will this exacerbate/mitigate existing inequalities in the workforce?

Background

"In the National AI Strategy, the government made commitments to enrich our understanding of AI as it impacts the economy and society more broadly. Additionally, we recently launched a steering board chaired by the heads of both the government analysis and scientific functions, to ensure cohesive cross government approaches to understanding AI impacts. An overview of the high-level questions we are asking in this regard are outlined in the section below. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-aistrategy)

Some priority work we are currently developing to meet these commitments include:

An analysis of the AI White Paper consultation to feed into the formal consultation response. This will allow us to take on feedback from the public and various key players in sectors across the economy, and better tailor policy interventions to support strategic AI aims.

Establishing the AI Safety Institute to advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety by carefully examining, evaluating, and testing new frontier AI systems. The Institute will conduct fundamental research on how to keep people safe in the face of fast and unpredictable progress in AI, improving our understanding of the capabilities and risks of AI systems.

A monitoring and evaluation framework for AI regulatory interventions in tandem with the AI regulatory white paper. This will develop our understanding of key metrics to monitor with regards to Ai governance and ecosystem impacts.

Research into the AI sector and supply. Updating the AI Sector Study to establish a consistent and comparable set of economic indicators for the AI sector in terms of producers and suppliers. This study helps us to best understand where the AI sector needs support, to grow sovereign capability of the UK in AI, in alignment with strategic priorities.

The development of a cross-economy national AI risk register. Developed in tandem with a responsibility register that garnered cross Whitehall agreement on which departments hold which risks with regards to AI. The risk register will provide a single source of truth on AI risks which regulators, government departments, and external groups can use to prioritise further action.

Further research into Compute and the best ways to leverage compute to support the AI sector. This will be key to informing our response to the future of compute review and maximising the £1 billion+ investments in state-of-the-art compute."

As AI technology advances, it may be possible to continue to automate an increasing number of human tasks. A research interest would be to understand the task breakdown of the UK labour market by sector and geography. Building on this, some scenario modelling (i.e. under different levels of AI capability) could be undertaken to test the extent to which jobs are likely to be lost.

Next steps

If you are keen to register your interest in working and connecting with DSIT Science, Innovation, and Research Directorate, and/or submitting evidence, then please complete the DSIT-ARI Evidence survey - https://dsit.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cDfmK2OukVAnirs

Link to ARI Document : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-science-innovation-and-technology-areas-of-research-interest/dsit-areas-of-research-interest-2024

Related UKRI funded projects


  • BIAS: Responsible AI for Labour Market Equality

    What do we study? BIAS is an interdisciplinary project to understand and tackle the role of AI algorithms in shaping ethnic and gender inequalities in the labour market, which is now increasingly digitized. The project s...

    Funded by: FIC

    Lead research organisation: Lancaster University

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project specifically focuses on understanding and mitigating biases in the AI-driven labour market processes, which directly relates to the question about impacts on different demographic groups and inequalities in the workforce.

  • MAMMoth: Multi-Attribute, Multimodal Bias Mitigation in AI Systems

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly employed by businesses, governments, and other organizations to make decisions with far-reaching impacts on individuals and society. This offers big opportunities for automati...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: TRILATERAL RESEARCH LTD

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project addresses discrimination in AI systems based on protected attributes like gender and race, which partially relates to the question about impacts on different demographic groups and inequalities in the workforce.

  • How do 'effects' differ across time? Understanding health inequalities by triangulating across multiple data sources and empirical strategies

    Socioeconomic circumstances such as our education or income are thought to have important effects on our health. On average, the more socioeconomically advantaged someone is, the better their health. Contrary to widely-h...

    Funded by: MRC

    Lead research organisation: University College London

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on understanding health inequalities and how they have changed across time, which partially relates to the question about impacts on different demographic groups and inequalities in the workforce.

  • Transforming European Work and Social Protection: A New Proactive Welfare State Fit for the Future World of Work

    Project summary For the last two decades, European countries have faced unprecedented structural changes due to digitalisation, automation; the internationalisation of the workforce; and the transition towards a green ec...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF KENT

  • Project Libra: Empowering Inclusion and Diversity for UK economy recovery

    Diverse and inclusive companies report higher innovation, productivity and employment engagement leading to increased business productivity. However, COVID-19 has had a drastic impact on workplace D&I strategies and ...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: ELIXIVITY LTD

  • Tackling health inequalities and extending working lives (THRIVE)

    The policy issue: In Europe and Canada, policymakers are facing particular challenges related to rising life expectancy, a shift in the age profile of the population and the consequent increase in the prevalence of chron...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Liverpool

  • Centre for Economic Performance 2020-25

    The Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) studies the determinants of economic performance at the level of the individual, the firm, the community, the city and region, the nation and the global economy. In a technologic...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: London School of Economics and Political Science

  • Deaton Review Country Studies: A Trans-Atlantic Comparison of Inequalities in Incomes and Outcomes over Five Decades

    The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on earnings, education, skills and jobs raises key challenges for inequality and the design of policy responses. The aim of this project is to examine a broad set of inequalities in em...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: Institute for Fiscal Studies

  • ESSPIN - ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND SPATIAL INEQUALITIES IN EUROPE IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL MEGA-TRENDS

    HORIZON EUROPE “ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND SPATIAL INEQUALITIES IN EUROPE IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL MEGA-TRENDS” (ESSPIN) PROJECT Understanding inequalities and designing public policies to address them. The ESSPIN Project explore...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & POL SCI

  • INCLUsive Digital Economy Network+: INCLUDE+

    The uneven ways that civil liberties, work, labour and health have all been impacted over the last 18 months as we have all turned to digital technologies to sustain previous ways of life, has not only shown us the exten...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Leeds

Similar ARIs from other organisations