AI ‘won’t live up to the hype’, warns thinktank

Governments must gain the trust of their citizens when it comes to increasing the use of artificial intelligence (AI), warns a new report. The Centre for Public Impact (CPI) thinktank, which was founded by consultant Boston Consulting Group, said that public trust in AI is low. While AI has the potential in mobility to make public transport responsive to traveller needs in real time, for example, the influence of AI is viewed negatively by some. Launching an action plan for governments at the Tallinn Digi
October 16, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Governments must gain the trust of their citizens when it comes to increasing the use of artificial intelligence (AI), warns a new report.


The Centre for Public Impact (CPI) thinktank, which was founded by consultant 4055 Boston Consulting Group, said that public trust in AI is low. While AI has the potential in mobility to make public transport responsive to traveller needs in real time, for example, the influence of AI is viewed negatively by some.

Launching an action plan for governments at the Tallinn Digital Summit in Estonia, CPI said that many governments are not adequately prepared, and are not taking the right steps to engage and inform citizens of where and how AI is being used.

Such information is vital to give AI “trust and legitimacy”, CPI believes. Programme director Danny Buerkli says: “When it comes to AI in government we either hear hype or horror; but never the reality.”

Its paper ‘How to make AI work in government and for people’ suggests that governments:

  • Understand the real needs of your users - understand their actual problems, and build systems around them (and not around some pretend problem just to use AI)
  • Focus on specific and doable tasks
  • Build AI literacy in the organisation and the public
  • Keep maintaining and improving AI systems - and adapt them to changing circumstances
  • Design for and embrace extended scrutiny - be resolutely open towards the public, your employees and other governments and organisations about what you are doing


Boston Consulting Group said that a survey of 14,000 internet users in 30 countries revealed that nearly a third (32%) of citizens are ‘strongly concerned’ that the moral and ethical issues of AI have not been resolved.

Classification & Data Collection

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Young people want to stay connected in the car of the future
    June 20, 2012
    Johnson Controls has announced the results of a survey of some 2,800 young people in Germany, Great Britain, China, and the US, to find out what ‘digital natives’ expect from the car of the future. Approximately 2800 young people were surveyed in Germany, Great Britain, China and the United States. Their key desire: to stay connected to the digital world while driving, too.
    Read More
  • Kapsch TrafficCom: 'The city is not made for cars'
    October 22, 2018
    Traffic can be a really big challenge. When you’re stuck, you’re stuck. Everything comes to a standstill. But Alexander Lewald describes how existing infrastructures can be used more efficiently and how demand can be managed. A few figures to start with: in Los Angeles, the average driver spends 102 hours a year in traffic – that’s more than four days. This figure is 91 hours in Moscow and New York, 74 in London, 69 in Paris, 51 hours in Munich and still 40 hours in Vienna. Traffic is what causes
    Read More
  • Grab and NUS set up AI lab in Singapore to make cities smarter
    July 20, 2018
    Technology company Grab and the National University of Singapore (NUS) has set up an artificial intelligence (AI) lab to help develop smarter cities in South-east Asia. The partnership intends to solve challenges such as congestion and the liveability of cities in the region. The Grab-NUS AI Lab, part of an initial joint investment of S$6m (£3.3m), will utilise data from the Grab platform to provide insights into how citizens move across cities. It will also be used to map out traffic patterns and ident
    Read More
  • RAC: over half of drivers believe congestion has worsened on UK major roads
    November 2, 2017
    56% of 1,727 drivers questioned in an annual survey believe that congestion has worsened on UK major roads, which carries 65% of all traffic, despite them comprising only 13% of the country’s road network. The findings from the survey have been presented by the RAC’s Report on Motoring.
    Read More

Highlighted Content