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AI Watch

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”.