On Thursday 6th June, members of the RAISE project team Christopher Nathan, Damian Eke and Matt Buckley were invited to present to a partnership and peer learning delegation from Kenya organised by the @foreign common Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The meeting took place in the FCDO offices in London.
The delegation was visiting the UK to learn about and discuss AI research, AI safety, the research ecosystem in the UK, work on AI standards, and to explore potential UK-Kenya cooperation including future research partnerships. The delegation included representatives from Kenyan academia, the Bureau of Standards, the Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy, members of Parliament and the Senate, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the National Bureau of Statistics. Whilst in the UK, the delegation also met with organisations like The Alan Turing Institute, The Responsible Technology Adoption Unit in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society and UKRI.
The RAISE (Responsible generative AI for SMEs in the UK and Africa) project is a RAI UK funded Impact Accelerator project involving a collaboration between The University of Nottingham and Trilateral Research. The project is building upon the team’s experience with the ethics of AI to produce usable guidance for SMEs about how to responsibly and ethically make use of new generative AI technologies. The first draft of this guidance is already available and will be refined over the lifetime of the project. On 1st July, RAISE held its first human-centric design workshop to identify and address barriers to effective integration of generative AI and contribute to the development of actionable solutions. As part of an agile co-creation process, participants’ feedback and suggestions will then be incorporated into an updated version of the guidelines.
What to look out for next:
Missed the first virtual workshop but still interested in sharing your insights, being part of the RAISE case studies and contributing to the RAISE guidelines for SMEs? The RAISE project will be convening another virtual workshop to explore the challenges faced by SMEs in adopting generative AI, as well as how the RAISE guidance can be updated to assist in implementing responsible AI practices. If you are an SME and will like to be part of the RAISE case studies, you can register using the CASE Study Interest Form. Also look out for a link to register on our website and LinkedIn page for other activities.