This week, a group of over 200 civil servants, Imperial students and representatives from global tech companies including Open AI, Google, AWS and Microsoft came together at Imperial College Business School for a three-day hackathon focused on the development of solutions for challenges faced by government departments using generative AI. This hack was run in partnership with Evidence House, a No10 initiative focused on upskilling civil servants in data science, development and AI whilst delivering insights and innovative solutions to government problems.
Combined teams of civil servants and students focused one on of eight ‘problem’ areas that government departments face, and were tasked with building potential solutions using generative AI. The areas were Handwritten Correspondence; Legislation; Meetings; Skills; National Situation Centre; Grants & Awards; Major Projects and Communications.
Shortlisted teams pitched their potential solutions to a panel comprising of Professor Mary Ryan and a group of leaders in the tech sector: Paul Willmott, Chair of the UK Government Central Digital & Data Office; Lord Walney, HMG’s Adviser on Political Violence & Disruption and Ben Henshall, Deputy Director, Data Science and AI, Number 10.