Ministers have shut down or dropped at least half a dozen artificial intelligence prototypes intended for the welfare system, the Guardian has learned, in a sign of the headwinds facing Keir Starmer's effort to increase government efficiency. Pilots of AI technology to enhance staff training, improve the service in jobcentres, speed up disability benefit payments and modernise communication systems are not being taken forward, freedom of information (FoI) requests reveal. Officials have internally admitted that ensuring AI systems are "scalable, reliable [and] thoroughly tested" are key challenges and say there have been many "frustrations and false starts". Not all trials would be expected to make it into regular use, but two of those now scrapped had been highlighted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in its latest annual report as examples of how it had "successfully tested multiple generative AI proofs of concept". A-cubed was intended to help staff steer jobseekers into work.

Benefits claimants could soon be using robots to claim cash as the Government speeds up the development of an AI system by working with a billionaire tech boss who declared recently: 'I want a bot for every person'. The Department for Work and Pensions has employed more than 1,000 new IT staff and created an £8million-a-year'intelligent automation garage' to develop up to 100 new robots to help support Britain's welfare system - used by 7million people each year. The UK government is working with New York-based UiPath, co-founded by billionaire Daniel Dines, whose £7billion company is viewed as a future Google of robotics and Artificial Intelligence. Mr Dines' software is already used by Walmart, Toyota and many banks and now will help the DWP develop systems to check benefits claims with tech giants IBM, Tata Consultancy and Capgemini also involved. Developers believe a'virtual workforce' could handle simpler welfare cases and payments faster and with fewer mistakes than today - while more complicated cases would still be dealt with by human staff.

The UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is exploring the use of AI to judge whether benefit claims are true. An £8 million'intelligent automation garage' has been created by the DWP with the goal of developing up to 100 new robots to assist Britain's welfare system. The DWP is working with New York-based UiPath on the system, along with tech giants IBM, Tata Consultancy, and Capgemini. UiPath's systems are already being used by notable brands such as Walmart, Toyota, and several banks. Ultimately, the DWP is billing the new AI system as simplifying the welfare system in order to process and issue benefits payments faster.

The UK government is accelerating the development of robots in the benefits system in a digitisation drive that vulnerable claimants fear could plunge them further into hunger and debt, the Guardian has learned. The Department for Work and Pensions has hired nearly 1,000 new IT staff in the past 18 months, and has increased spending to about £8m a year on a specialist "intelligent automation garage" where computer scientists are developing over 100 welfare robots, deep learning and intelligent automation for use in the welfare system. As well as contracts with the outsourcing multinationals IBM, Tata Consultancy and CapGemini, it is also working with UiPath, a New York-based firm co-founded by Daniel Dines, the world's first "bot billionaire" who last month said: "I want a robot for every person." His software, used by Walmart and Toyota, is now being deployed in a bid to introduce machine learning into checking benefit claims. The DWP is also testing artificial intelligence to judge the likelihood that citizens' claims about their childcare and housing costs are true when they apply for benefits.

Rapid technological progress and innovation can destroy jobs and disrupt welfare systems. This is not a new concern. Historically, automation of production processes has led to extraordinary efficiency gains and to the displacement of labour. But history has also shown that, in the longer run, the gains in efficiency pay off and new jobs are created. But the past is not necessarily a guide to the future.

EXPERTS warn that "the substitution of machinery for human labour" may "render the population redundant". They worry that "the discovery of this mighty power" has come "before we knew how to employ it rightly". Such fears are expressed today by those who worry that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could destroy millions of jobs and pose a "Terminator"-style threat to humanity. But these are in fact the words of commentators discussing mechanisation and steam power two centuries ago. Back then the controversy over the dangers posed by machines was known as the "machinery question".

What are we going to do for all of the people displaced by robots? From truck drivers to (gasp!) writers, the growing number of professions impacted or even altogether eliminated by automation and artificial intelligence presents a significant potential economic and political challenge. Automation and artificial intelligence are a potential crisis, not an inevitable one. One idea is to find a way to guarantee a minimal standard of living, even in a world where, due to technology, the number of available jobs may be much smaller. One way is to implement a relatively old idea known as the guaranteed basic income.

EXPERTS warn that "the substitution of machinery for human labour" may "render the population redundant". They worry that "the discovery of this mighty power" has come "before we knew how to employ it rightly". Such fears are expressed today by those who worry that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could destroy millions of jobs and pose a "Terminator"-style threat to humanity. But these are in fact the words of commentators discussing mechanisation and steam power two centuries ago. Back then the controversy over the dangers posed by machines was known as the "machinery question".