Deputy PM Oliver Dowden announced a new “hit squad” unit to replace Civil Servants with AI last night at a training event. He unveiled the £5 million “Incubator for AI” plans which are meant to be a “significant downward driver” in reducing the bloated size of the civil service. The new unit would use AI to process asylum claims, welfare fraud, and NHS0-patient interaction. Not quite what civil servants had in mind when it came to AI helping them do their job…

Dowden declared:

“This is about trying to get a hit squad … that is going to go out there and actually bring a high level of expertise to try and identify innovative solutions to projects. I’m a Conservative, I want the smallest possible state and the best possible outcomes.”

Considering civil service productivity levels are still so low, it make sense to replace them with AI. The bots won’t demand weekly siestas or refuse to go into the office…