Bureaucrat bot bid: Government search for AI boss
The state government has kicked off the hiring process for a director of artificial intelligence to head up a new office tasked with driving efficiencies across the public sector using AI.
Assistant Minister for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy Michael Brown told InDaily that the new role would look to run several “proof of value” programs, using AI to speed up menial and repetitive tasks, freeing public servants to focus on higher value work.
Healthcare and policing have been identified as key areas which could benefit from the use of AI.
“AI adoption is an important part of delivering increased public value across sectors like health and policing, amongst others,’’ the Assistant Minister said.
“It offers a broad range of opportunities to reduce administrative workload such as preparing documentation, reports and case notes, or to modernise and accelerate public services through increased productivity such as accelerating healthcare diagnostics or improving the speed of standard planning decisions.
“This means frontline healthcare workers could spend more time with patients.’’
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AI-powered transcription was also an area which had potential uses across both healthcare and policing, he said.
“It can automate clinical documentation, reduce time spent on manual notetaking, support more accurate records and enable clinicians to focus on patient care,’’ Brown said.
“In policing, it can streamline the preparation of incident reports and case notes, reduce paperwork admin, allowing officers to spend more time on frontline, high-value work.’’
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The government’s new Office for AI has been funded to the tune of $28 million over four years out to 2028-29, and would run a number of “proof of value” programs.
“Through practical implementation of Proof of Value trials, the director and their team will work across government, directly with agencies, to deliver on the AI strategy for South Australia, build AI capability, drive adoption of scalable and repeatable solutions, and enable better decision-making, improved processes and increased productivity,’’ the Assistant Minister said.
Brown stressed the government’s AI strategy was not about reducing public servant numbers, but reducing the time spent on menial, repetitive tasks.
“AI is not being explored to replace public sector jobs, but to allow public sector workers to use their time more effectively,’’ he said.
“This initiative is about increasing productivity by supporting the people we already have. AI tools will help reduce repetitive, time-consuming tasks, freeing up staff to focus on more meaningful and work.’’
The Director Artificial Intelligence role is being advertised as a three year appointment within the Department of Treasury and Finance.
As well as running trials of AI across government, the director will also be tasked with “Build(ing) a world-class AI government wide governance framework’’ and “Influenc(ing) policy, strategy and national dialogue on AI governance and ethics’’.
The Federal Government is also working on a National AI Capability Plan, announced in December, which is yet to be released.
That plan will aim to identify how to boost investment in Australia’s AI ecosystem; how to strengthen the nation’s AI capabilities; identify areas where skills need to be developed, and; “Identify areas where we need sovereign capability or infrastructure to get the most out of AI technologies’’.
