Using AI responsibly

Participatory development is always recommended, regardless of the purpose of the system or service. For example, even a match factory using AI to make production more efficient should involve their staff members in the development, even if the system is not likely to infringe fundamental or human rights.

The transition to new methods is likely to be better when everyone is involved in the process, understands what is at stake and brings their own experience-based knowledge to the development.

The forms of involvement can vary widely, and the entire development and production cycle can engage users in brainstorming, testing, iterating and commenting.

In a relatively short time, public administration has moved from the realm of paper forms to digital services and customer-oriented service design. Development is now taking us towards an automated and digital public service tailored for life events and individual users.

New technological systems have the ability to approach and “understand” individuals, use their data in multiple ways in service ecosystems and provide them with highly automated, individualised service and decision-making.

It is then absolutely essential that the public sector informs citizens about this development and helps them understand it, so that ordinary people have the opportunity to participate in public discourse and the processes of involvement.

Technological development enables a new kind of relationship between public services and individual citizens. When planning a development project, assess the following perspectives:

1.  Why is involvement important in this particular project?If it is likely or even highly possible that the end result of the development will have an impact on citizens’ everyday lives and the realisation of their rights, involvement should be essential.

2.  At what stages is civic involvement particularly valuable?Because identifying a problem and collecting the necessary data is the cornerstone of an AI system, involvement is essential for forming a concrete objective.

3.  How can you do civic involvement? On its website, the OECD lists 12 different methods of civic involvementOpens in a new window.. In reality, the number of methods is surely even higher.

Who is responsible for organising the involvement process? Involvement that includes different actors and citizen groups is a demanding process. There is expert help and professional assistance available, and any difficulties in the process must not deter genuine involvement.