Netherlands: Public Sector dimension of AI Strategy

Introduction

This page reports a synthesis of the main elements that characterise the national AI strategy with a specific focus on the public sector. It extracts the information related to a single country from a comparative analysis done by the AI Watch team and reported in full in the science for policy report “AI Watch. European Landscape on the Use of Artificial Intelligence by the Public Sector”.

Main highlights

AI can assist governments tackle many of the current challenges and improve government processes
The government should work with companies to tackle current policy issues and actively use innovative procurement methods
Digital courses on AI will be provided on the governmental digitalisation academy
An implementation toolkit for innovative technologies will be developed and experiences from AI pilots will be shared
Government use of AI will have to follow transparency requirements
Stimulate human-centric AI in government with the use of impact assessment frameworks, certificates and audits

Strategy analysis

Learning by doing	Pilots projects
Stimulating awareness and knowledge sharing	Awareness campaigns Building an international community
Ethical and legal framework	Development of ethical frameworks
Improving data access and quality	Improving data quality Improving data access Access to private sector data
Funding and procurement	Revision of procurement processes
Improving internal capacity	Training on AI

Comment

The strategy lists a number of actions the government is aiming to enable this adoption.

First, improving internal capacity is seen as key. In order to improve the knowledge of civil servants on AI, digital courses will be provided on the governmental digitalization academy.

To foster public-private partnerships the Dutch strategy incentivises the use of innovative procurement methods in order to assist SME’s in developing innovative AI applications for the public sector.

To stimulate awareness the government is also aiming to learn from a number of experiments and pilots on AI within the Dutch government. Ad hoc meetings will be scheduled.

For all the AI used in governmental organizations, the Dutch government stresses that the algorithm should be human-centric and trustworthy. Hence, the government will stimulate the use of AI Impact Assessment tools, audits or certifications. Moreover, the Ministry of Health is exploring the legal and ethical challenges connected to the use of AI.

General Information

Title

Strategic Action plan for Artificial Intelligence

Data of release

Oct 2019

Specific actions to public sector

Track 1 | Exploit social and economic opportunities. “The government makes optimal use of AI in public task performance”.