Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail the (i) use; and (ii) development, by (a) his Department; and (b) its arm’s-length bodies, of Artificial Intelligence products.
Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: (a) (i)My Department uses artificial intelligence (AI) products in several ways, including, for example, to enhance staff productivity in areas such as drafting meeting notes and summarising reports; provide coding assistance for IT developers; automating documentary checks; carrying out remote sensing analysis on satellite, orthophotography and LiDAR imagery for environmental monitoring purposes; and undertaking predictive analysis and modelling for facilities development.
(ii)My Department is also investigating ways to make further use of AI products in the areas outlined above, including through the development of machine learning solutions that can support improved service delivery and data analytics. To ensure responsible use of AI, all potential use cases must have a risk assessment carried out, and approval from the DAERA Senior Information Risk Owner.
(b) (i)I am advised by my Department’s arm’s length bodies that the use of AI is not currently prevalent although there is some use of Generative AI to enhance staff productivity in areas such as drafting emails or meeting notes and summarising reports, as well as some AI assisted data analysis and image classification.
(ii)Turning to plans for development, I understand that the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) will be testing Generative AI technology in several research and corporate functions over the next number of months. It also has ambitions to use other types of AI technology in upcoming research projects to assist processing and analysis of data and supporting and enabling delivery of AFBI’s Science Strategy 2030. AFBI is also currently reviewing an AI Usage policy which will be in place before further deployment of AI tools.
ENDS
Your MLA 