Civil servants’ love affair with AI chatbots looks like it is winding up. The Department for Work and Pensions has issued new guidance to its Acceptable Use Policy for its tech systems. Included in the guidance, which applies to “all DWP employees, agents, contractors, consultants, suppliers and business partners” and covers all tech in the building, is an unequivocal ban on ChatGPT:

“Users must not attempt to access public AI applications – such as ChatGPT – when undertaking DWP business, or on DWP-approved devices“.

In the meantime Oliver Dowden’s “AI Hit Squad” will in the best traditions of joined-up-government presumably continue in its mission to achieve “the smallest possible state and the best outcomes” by using AI to do civil servants’ work for them. Three weeks after the government’s AI framework was announced its consistency on the new technology is falling apart…