Policies and standards for the evaluation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in government decision making: FOI release

Information requested

"Publish your policies and standards for the evaluation of AI in government or public service decision making including -

• Internal policies and standards within the Scottish Government and its subsidiary departments
• Any current advice or recommendations to other public services on evaluation of AI."

Response

Firstly please let me apologise for the slight delay in getting this response to you.

1. Internal policies and standards within the Scottish Government and its subsidiary departments. The Scottish Government (SG) does not currently have any AI-specific internal policies and guidelines. However, we adhere to existing UK regulatory frameworks which are relevant to AI. All public bodies in Scotland have to adhere to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) GDPR legal requirements of data. They also need to take into consideration the ICO’s Guidance on AI and data protection. The Scottish Government also adopts the high level principles laid out in Scotland’s AI Strategy and recommends that other public bodies do the same.

Scottish Government and public bodies in Scotland also collaborate with CDEI to ensure that ethical considerations and the values that citizens want are reflected in governance and policy frameworks on the use of AI.

2. Any current advice or recommendations to other public services on evaluation of AI. There is no set advice or recommendation made by the Scottish Government to other public services on the evaluation of AI. However, we would suggest the same considerations as above.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.