In early summer 2016, a joint press release was issued by a local government in the north of London and a US-based tech company known for its use of artificial intelligence. The headline read:
First Public Sector Role for IPsoftās Amelia as Enfield Council Deploys her to boost local services. (Ipsoft 2016)
The press release describes Amelia as a virtual agent, who could understand natural language and context, could learn, resolve problems and could sense and respond to emotion. Representatives of IPsoft state that it will allow the council to meet high customer expectations, to deliver more with less.
Such cognitive platforms offer government āan opportunity to completely reimagine how frontline public services are delivered. Organisations can not only unlock significant cost efficiencies as routine, high-volume tasks are automated, but, more excitingly, can unlock the full creative potential of their peopleā, said the representative from the company. The chief executive of the council is quoted as saying: āThis is a very exciting opportunity to deliver better services to residents, without increasing costs.ā And the councilās Director of Finance, Resources and Customer Services said:
Our approach to transformation embraces digital technology to find completely new ways of supporting residents, which, in turn, frees up valuable resources for reinvestment in front line services. (Ipsoft 2016)
The accompanying video starts with a voice-over explaining that Enfield is one of the largest London boroughs with a growing population, increased demand on services and rising exception from residents. We then learn about how Amelia will workāon the website to support local people and remove the need for them to phone or visit the council offices. The video oscillates between aerial footage of the local authority, interviews with council staff and images of an office.
The office contains a desktop computer; on the screen Amelia has blonde hair tied back, her arms by her side, wearing a dark suit jacket and white shirt. She is pictured alongside a messages in a chat exchange. It appears Amelia is speaking the words of her questions and replies. In another shot, the Amelia avatar is pictured on the screen of a smartphone. The interviewee discusses the kinds of processes he expects Amelia will be able to provide. As the video concludes with the voice-over suggesting local people in Enfield can look forward to āmeetingā Amelia just as a series of headlines flash up on the screen:
This is Amelia: Fluent in Natural Conversation; Emotionally engaged; Understands context; Leading the cognitive revolution; Amelia is scalable.
While the idea of using technology to help improve efficiency, quality or access to public services is by no means new, some things stood out about this announcement:
First was the focus on the idea of a virtual agent, and the personification in an animated avatar, in this case an animated human character representing a public servant, a customer services officer. This was communicated as more than the deployment of software but rather the employment of a virtual human. The second was the focus on AI. While we have grown used to news of how AI can screen for cancers, drive cars autonomously or help establish creditworthiness what is presented here is a fluent, emotionally intelligent agent, capable of natural conversation and contributing to the transformation of frontline public service.
How did the media react to the announcement? Most of the major national newspapers in England covered the story. The first few articles mainly quoted sections of the authorised press release, but in the following dayās newspaper journalists built on this by gathering additional content. What is notable, however, are the headlines. The word ārobotā is not used in the press release, but this was commonplace in the coverage (Table 1.1).
Table 1.1
Press reaction to news of Enfield Amelia press release, June 2016
Publication/Date | Headline | Quote |
|---|---|---|
Financial Times, 16 June (Megaw 2016) | Council Takes on Its First Robot Worker | āThe first government body to recruit a āvirtual employeeā for frontline servicesā |
London Evening Standard 16 June (Blunden 2016) | First edition: Hi, Iām Amelia, your local council robot worker Late Edition: Enfield Council uses robotic āsupercomputerā instead of humans to deliver frontline services | āA robotic employee will be deployed instead of human council workers to ādeliver frontline public servicesā for the first time, it was revealed todayā |
Enfield Independent, 20 June (Smith 2016) | āIt will be like speaking to a personā: Plans for AI to answer planning and permit applications at Enfield Council | āIf Amelia cannot answer a question, it calls in a human colleague and learns from themā |
Daily Mirror, June 17 (McCrum 2016) | Robot āAmeliaā who can āsense emotionsā to start work in council job INSTEAD of usual human workers; Enfield Council has unveiled their new staff member who will help with customer service and administration | āA new robot is set to take on a post with a local UK councilāand sheās being hailed as the future of the humanoid workforceā |
The Telegraph, 16 June (Jamieson 2016) | Robot called Amelia to do the job of human council workers for the first time | āA robot will replace human workers in delivering public services for the first time at a local council beset by budget cuts. The robotic employee, known as Amelia, has been purchased by Enfield council in London and can make decisions and track customer emotions. The artificial intelligence (AI) programme will be able to participate in thousands of conversations at once and answer in a human way ā¦ It is said to be 60 percent cheaper than using a human workerā |
Daily Mail, 16 June (Prigg 2016) | Meet Amelia the AI assistant: āVirtual agentā gets job at a London council answering customer queries | āAmelia also learns on the job by observing interactions between her human coworkers and customers and independently builds her own process map of what is hap... |