How can we ensure public attitudes to AI are positive, and maximise trust in safe AI?

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."

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


  • Seclea – Building Trust in AI

    Artificial Intelligence has the potential to improve our lives with rapid, personalised and assistive services. At the same time, it presents risks of negative impacts on both society and individual citizens. Recent deba...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: SECLEA

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on building trust in AI through transparency, explainability, and accountability, aligning with the goal of ensuring positive public attitudes and maximizing trust in safe AI.

  • Seclea Platform - Responsible AI Tools for Everyone

    Artificial Intelligence has the potential to improve our lives with rapid, personalised and assistive services. It presents risks of negative effects on both society and individual citizens. Recent debacles have showed t...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: SECLEA LTD

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project provides responsible AI tools to ensure AI applications are developed and maintained ethically, supporting the goal of building public trust in AI.

  • AI UK: Creating an International Ecosystem for Responsible AI Research and Innovation

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) can have dramatic effects on industrial sectors and societies (e.g., Generative AI, facial recognition, autonomous vehicles). AI UK will pioneer a reflective, inclusive approach to responsibl...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Southampton

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on creating an international ecosystem for responsible AI research and innovation, which indirectly contributes to building trust in AI by addressing potential harms and promoting responsible AI development.

  • Responsible AI for Long-term Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (RAILS): Integrating Responsible AI and Socio-legal Governance

    Society is seeing enormous growth in the development and implementation of autonomous systems, which can offer significant benefits to citizens, communities, and businesses. The potential for improvements in societal wel...

    Funded by: SPF

    Lead research organisation: University of Oxford

  • FAITH: Fostering Artificial Intelligence Trust for Humans towards the optimization of trustworthiness through large-scale pilots in critical domains

    The increasing requirement for trustworthy AI systems across diverse application domains has become a pressing need not least due to the critical role that AI plays in the ongoing digital transformation addressing urgent...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

  • Enabling a Responsible AI Ecosystem

    Problem Space: There is now a broad base of research in AI ethics, policy and law that can inform and guide efforts to construct a Responsible AI (R-AI) ecosystem, but three gaps must be bridged before this is achieved: ...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Edinburgh

  • FRAIM: Framing Responsible AI Implementation and Management

    Context Increasing applications of AI technologies have necessitated rapid evolution in organisational policy and practice. However, these rapid changes have often been isolated in individual organisations and sectors, ...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Sheffield

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on responsible AI implementation and management, not specifically on ensuring positive public attitudes and trust in safe AI.

  • ENFIELD: European Lighthouse to Manifest Trustworthy and Green AI

    ENFIELD will create a unique European Centre of Excellence that excels the fundamental research in the scientific pillars of Adaptive, Green, Human-Centric, and Trustworthy AI that are new, strategic and of paramount imp...

    Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

  • Democratise access to AI governance through bringing responsible AI platform providers together and enabling access to SMEs

    Enzai has built a responsible AI platform which allows users to understand and manage the risks that come with AI, through policy and governance controls. The company is seeking to form a consortium in order to democrati...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: ENZAI TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

  • Trustworthy and Ethical Assurance of Digital Twins (TEA-DT)

    In recent years, considerable effort has gone into defining "responsible" AI research and innovation. Though progress is tangible, many sectors still lack the tools and capabilities for operationalising and imp...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: The Alan Turing Institute

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on trustworthy and ethical assurance of digital twins, not directly on ensuring positive public attitudes and trust in safe AI.

Similar ARIs from other organisations