Artificial intelligence (AI) could take over more than eight in 10 repetitive jobs performed by civil servants, a study has found. From processing passports to registering to vote, at least 120 million tasks across government have the potential to be automated. Every minute AI helped cut per transaction would save hundreds of thousands of hours of manual work by human staff. The Alan Turing Institute, which carried out the research, said it would free up officials from never-ending bureaucracy and spend more time dealing with the public. Last month, the Deputy Prime Minister promised AI would end'timewasting, pencil-pushing, computer-saysno' frustrations of dealing with public services.

There is currently considerable excitement within government about the potential of artificial intelligence to improve public service productivity through the automation of complex but repetitive bureaucratic tasks, freeing up the time of skilled staff. Here, we explore the size of this opportunity, by mapping out the scale of citizen-facing bureaucratic decision-making procedures within UK central government, and measuring their potential for AI-driven automation. We estimate that UK central government conducts approximately one billion citizen-facing transactions per year in the provision of around 400 services, of which approximately 143 million are complex repetitive transactions. We estimate that 84% of these complex transactions are highly automatable, representing a huge potential opportunity: saving even an average of just one minute per complex transaction would save the equivalent of approximately 1,200 person-years of work every year. We also develop a model to estimate the volume of transactions a government service undertakes, providing a way for government to avoid conducting time consuming transaction volume measurements. Finally, we find that there is high turnover in the types of services government provide, meaning that automation efforts should focus on general procedures rather than services themselves which are likely to evolve over time. Overall, our work presents a novel perspective on the structure and functioning of modern government, and how it might evolve in the age of artificial intelligence.

While the implications of AI-driven solutions can be complicated, certain opportunities exist for their use that offers objective and essential benefits. The public sector is one such area that is ripe – and perhaps long overdue – for a digital transformation. Waiting in line at the DMV is an infamously painful experience shared by anyone who has had the unfortunate fate of needing federally issued documents in the United States. Considering that these documents are necessary to qualify for and benefit from many government services, it is vexing that the infrastructure in place is still slow enough to be parodied as an animated sloth in a children's movie. But for many, the archaic and inaccessible process of the DMV is no laughing matter.

The year 2022 ends on a positive note with regard to India-UAE relations, with business and political ties between the two countries scaling new heights. The UAE is India's third largest trading partner and the bilateral trade between them surpasses $88 billion. Indians, moreover, constitute 39.9 per cent of the UAE population and their remittances to India add up to more than $17 billion, the largest for any country overseas. To tell the world what the future will be like, Dubai built The Museum Of The Future, which talks about the possibilities of the future. To advance the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, to harness the latest technologies in coding, big data analysis, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and human-machine interaction to drive the future.

Australians want more digital government services and a majority are comfortable with Artificial Intelligence-generated services that personalise assistance based on circumstances, according to the inaugural Publicis Sapient Digital Citizen Survey on digital government in Australia. The survey of more than 5000 respondents across Australia looked at peoples usage, experience, and perspectives on engaging with Governments through digital services. The report highlights an openness to leveraging AI technologies with 83% of Australians open to digital services that remember details of their past interactions, and 78% are comfortable with a government website that personalised services based on their employment status and income or previous interactions with Government. The survey found that millennials are the most likely of any age group to use government digital services (94%) compared to boomers (79%) and builders (61%), driven by their higher use of employment and family-related services. Most citizens are open to many services being made as available digitally as possible - healthcare, ATO, and Centrelink were the most common areas where citizens have suggested extending digital service offers.

Gartner, Inc. identified the top 10 government technology trends for 2022 that can guide public-sector leaders in accelerating digital transformation and mitigating disruption risks. "Government and public sector CIOs now need to sustain the momentum of digital acceleration after the initial chaos of the pandemic. CIOs can use these top trends to establish future-ready organisations by demonstrating how digital initiatives deliver value to diverse and evolving constituent needs, support new workforce trends, enable efficient scaling of operations and build a composable business and technology foundation," said Arthur Mickoleit, Research Director, Gartner. Government CIOs must consider the collective impact of the following 10 trends on their organisations and include them in their strategic plans for 2022 and beyond. Not doing so risks undermining the quality of government services and the capacity to deliver mission value in the long run.

All it took was public outrage, a widespread campaign, and political condemnation for the IRS to reverse its plans to require facial recognition for access to certain online services. In abandoning its intention to require tax-payers to upload images of their government-issued IDs and video selfies to controversial third-party company ID.me, the IRS has acknowledged that Americans shouldn't have to sacrifice their privacy for security. But the controversy around ID.me has somewhat eclipsed the broader and more concerning context of biometric identification technologies. Coverage of the IRS's announcement has in many cases not addressed the fact that millions of less advantaged individuals in the United States have already been forced to have their faces scanned by ID.me to access government services. ID.me has contracts with 10 federal agencies and has been verifying identities for the IRS's Child Tax Credit Update Portal since last year.

The Internal Revenue Service is dropping a controversial facial recognition system that requires people to upload video selfies when creating new IRS online accounts. This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Condé Nast. "The IRS announced it will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts," the agency said on Monday. "The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season. During the transition, the IRS will quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition."

For the last 20 years, the research on artificial intelligence has been very aggressive, which has resulted in great innovations. Big data, robotics, medical research, and autonomous vehicles are some of the applications that emerged from AI development. Government interest in AI has picked up in recent years as many government departments started to invest in AI in the form of pilot programs for various AI-based applications. AI adoption acts as a lever for transformational change in the way government services are conceived, designed, delivered, and consumed. It helps the government to provide integrated services to its citizens through the seamless flow of information across government departments.

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is planning to require citizens to create accounts with a private facial recognition company in order to file taxes online. The IRS is joining a growing number of federal and state agencies that have contracted with ID.me to authenticate the identities of people accessing services. The IRS's move is aimed at cutting down on identity theft, a crime that affects millions of Americans. The IRS, in particular, has reported a number of tax filings from people claiming to be others, and fraud in many of the programs that were administered as part of the American Relief Plan has been a major concern to the government. The IRS decision has prompted a backlash, in part over concerns about requiring citizens to use facial recognition technology and in part over difficulties some people have had in using the system, particularly with some state agencies that provide unemployment benefits.