The UK government is under immense pressure to respond to geopolitical instability, financial pressures and rapid technological change - but traditional policymaking methods are struggling to keep pace. AI has the potential to transform how government makes decisions, delivers public services and responds to a rapidly changing world - but what would a smart AI-enabled state actually look like? And is the government ready to adopt and embed AI?
With Andy Burnham now two-thirds of the way through his first 100 days in Downing Street, AI is a topic he has already had to face head-on. But might Burnham's new government use AI to build a smarter, more agile state?
To dive into this question, Nesta CEO Ravi Gurumurthy sat down with Professor Geoff Mulgan, former head of the Number 10 Strategy Unit, on our deep-dive series from the Policy Fix podcast: Andy Burnham's first 100 days.
Our duo discuss the areas where AI could transform policymaking, allowing civil servants to analyse evidence, test ideas and model scenarios at speed - and why avoiding AI-dependence while keeping human judgement intact is critical.
The conversation explores what an AI-enabled government could mean for Andy Burnham's approach to public control, how AI could make regulators smarter, whether public services could continuously learn and improve and what a more democratic alternative to centralised, authoritarian uses of AI might look like.
So, as Andy Burnham approaches the end of his first 100 days, what could he do to start modernising the state with AI? Listen to our latest episode to find out.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:41 Designing policymaking for the AI era
06:16 Will AI create overconfident generalists?
07:31 Using AI in the spending review
11:03 How AI could fix meetings
14:12 Leapfrogging Westminster
15:47 Can AI make state planning work?
19:57 Smarter regulators
21:56 A democratic alternative to authoritarian AI
23:41 Global governance of AI
27:34 Public services that continuously learn
32:38 How many civil servants should there be?
34:11 The one thing Burnham should do
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Watch the full series on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfr-pIsrx5ko
Find out more about Nesta: https://www.nesta.org.uk
Nesta is a UK research and innovation foundation. We design, test and scale solutions to the big challenges of our time. We're funded by a charity endowment and are politically neutral.
