The Home Office is looking to create a central capability to support the adoption of AI in its activities.
It is considering a proposal for ‘AI as a service’ to give internal users access to tailored AI tools without having to build or maintain the technology themselves.
This is expected to significantly reduce the cost and speed of AI adoption with a ‘build once, use many times’ approach.
The department has begun an open early engagement to assess the perspectives of potential suppliers as an early stage of procurement.
The notice states it is looking to award a one-year, £3 million contract, with a possible one-year extension, to a partner in developing its central AI infrastructure.
“This capability is required to meet ambitions set out in the prime minister’s AI Action Plan and the subsequent departmental demand for AI,” it says.
GenAI focus
An attachment says the service will have a particular focus on generative AI to solve widespread problems, but will extend into other areas. It will be expected to take on projects from problem statement to live services, including model selection, assurance, evaluation and monitoring.
The Home Office has already taken steps to use AI in some areas. In late April it announced that activities related to refugee protection will include the use of AI to help case workers make quicker decisions on asylum claims.
It said the technology will speed up access to relevant country advice and summarise lengthy transcripts of interviews, saving decision makers up to an hour per case.
The department also published an evaluation of AI trials in decision making on asylum applications. This included a finding that the tools did not appear to have a negative or positive effect on the quality of decisions, but that pilots were small scale and further evaluation is required.
