Government recruits for 'public face' of AI

The government is searching for someone to become the "highly public face for AI" as head of its new Office for Artificial Intelligence (OAI). The OAI, the formation of which was announced in the Industrial Strategy whitepaper published in November, will be jointly established and run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The two Whitehall departments have launched a recruitment process for a leader to head up the office. The role – which comes with a salary of up to £80,000 – is being offered on an initial two-year fixed-term, loan, or secondment contract, "with the possibility of extension or permanency", the government said. The head of OAI will be employed by DCMS but will report into the senior managers and ministers of both departments.