An amendment brought by Tom Rylatt asked for Policy & Resources to build on its proposed GWP workstream and to assess options for ‘the strategic coordination and governance of artificial intelligence across the Bailiwick’.
Deputy Rylatt said he wanted the States to begin ‘a serious conversation about AI and its future in the island’ and avoid what he said was a risk of AI being addressed in a piecemeal fashion.
Neil Inder suggested that the Innovation Board was the best placed to consider this topic – government, he said, was too slow and too ineffective and would not be focused.
‘There isn’t a problem that the government could not make significantly worse,’ he said, adding that he would not support the amendment.
Technology needed to be at the heart of delivering the various super priorities, said Deputy Jennifer Strachan, but she wondered what the amendment hoped to achieve since it did not include additional funding. She said she supported its aims but was worried it might add another layer of bureaucracy.
Amendment seconder Deputy Rhona Humphreys said she was convinced that AI carried a lot of potential but also risks if the island did not approach it properly.
This was not asking government to address all aspects of AI right away, nor to approve spending or the setting up of a new body, but simply directing P&R to explore options through the GWP.
Economic Development president Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller did not vote for the amendment.
She said the Digital Steering Forum was already progressing various IT areas of the GWP, including cyber-security, data protection and aspects of AI strategy with politicians and officers, as well as Innovate Guernsey.
Deputy David Goy said it was only a matter of time before AI-imbued technology such as robots came to the island.
The amendment put a focus on AI, which was a good thing to do, and the island needed to look at governing the technology as soon as possible.
It was going to happen whatever the States did, said Deputy Mark Helyar, who said the best way to implement it in a large government structure was to change the culture to enable adapting to new working practices.
IT advisory panel member Deputy Marc Laine said that if the States was going to exploit AI, it needed to start with senior leadership and the ‘rank and file’ in the States.
He said that he would back the amendment, but did not want to see lots of money being poured into a new States office.
It was extremely important to acknowledge that AI was around, said Alderney Representative Edward Hill, but if jobs were going to be lost as a result, the States needed to consider what it was going to do to attract young people to entry level jobs to stay in the island.
P&R president Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said she backed the amendment partly because it provided additional impetus, but also because of how it would enable a look at how AI could affect the workings of government.
The States was already trialling using AI to take minutes at meetings, to varying degrees of success, she said.
Members should be in no doubt that AI would have a profound impact on employment in the island, she said.
‘I cannot overstate the importance of us as a government getting to grips with this,’ she said.
The amendment was passed by 33 votes to four.
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