Yes, Minister character is government’s new AI assistant

Government workers will soon be given access to a set of tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI), named after a scheming parliamentary official from the classic sitcom Yes, Minister.

The government says the assistants – called Humphrey – will “speed up the work of civil servants” and save money by replacing cash that would have been spent on consultants.

But the decision to name the AI after Sir Humphrey Appleby, a character described as “devious and controlling”, has raised eyebrows.

Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of trade body UKAI, said the name risks “undermining” the government’s mission to embrace the tech.

Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle will announce more digital tools later on Tuesday, including two apps which will store government documents, including digital driving licenses.

The announcement is part of the government’s overhaul of digital services and comes after their AI Opportunities Action Plan announced last week.

“Humphrey for me is a name which is very associated with the Machiavellian character from Yes, Minister,” says Mr Flagg from UKAI, which represents the AI sector.

“That immediately makes people who aren’t in that central Whitehall office think that this is something which is not going to be empowering and not going to be helping them.”

Most of the tools in the Humphrey suite are generative AI models – in this case, technology which takes large amounts of information and summarises it in a more digestible format – to be used by the civil service.

Among them is Consult, which summarises people’s responses to public calls for information.

The government says this is currently done by expensive external consultants who bill the taxpayer “around £100,000 every time.”

Parlex, which the government says helps policymakers search through previous parliamentary debates on a certain topic, is described by The Times as “designed to avoid catastrophic political rows by predicting how MPs will respond”.

Other changes announced include more efficient data sharing between departments.

“I think the government is doing the right thing,” says Mr Flagg.

“They do have some good developers – I have every confidence they are going to be creating a great product.”