Scottish Government consults on AI strategy
As set out in Protecting Scotland’s Future: the Government’s Programme for Scotland 2019-2020 (September 2019), the Scottish Government is committed to developing an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy for Scotland.
It is envisaged that this strategy will be published in September 2020. This will highlight what Scotland needs to do in the period to 2025 in order to realise the potential of AI. This will include creating the right ecosystem for people in Scotland to benefit from the adoption of AI as a trusted, responsible and ethical tool.
To help inform its thinking the Scottish Government published The AI Of The Possible: Developing Scotland’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy Scoping Document in January. In February it published the related consultation paper The AI Of The Possible: Developing Scotland’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy Consultation Paper. The Scottish Government is seeking views on:
- the proposed definition of AI for the purposes of the strategy;
- the draft vision for AI and the proposed approach to fostering the adoption of AI in Scotland outlined in the scoping document;
- other matters that respondents feel it is important for Scotland’s AI strategy to address.
The Scottish Government will also be engaging with communities of interest and the public in order to increase general awareness, interest and discussion about the opportunities and challenges related to AI in Scotland.
Deadline for comments
The deadline for responses is 27 March 2020. Anyone who would like to feed comments into the ICAS response should do so via CA Connect, for the attention of James Barbour.
Next steps
Information gathered from the consultation will be used to refine the vision for and proposed approach to fostering the adoption of AI in Scotland, and to inform the strategy development process. It is envisaged that the strategy will be published in September 2020.