With its massive public push for AI investments, the UK government is playing the virtual card to project itself into the 21st century. Today announced plans to launch a secure digital wallet — built in partnership with OpenAI — to manage government-issued credentials to interact with the mainstream. GOV.UK Portal Today, It says the chatbot is called 'chat-uk' and will be part of a wider portal and app.
The first two cards he plans to add to his wallet are a virtual driver's license and a veteran's card for those who have served in the military. The service is planned to be launched later this year, he said at a press conference today. The GOV.UK portal will be online by 2025; However, it has already started testing the chat service and it is now open to normal users to test it. Even some of the responses, said Peter Kyle, Britain's secretary of state for technology. A little strange.
“In an online world, government is moving to an online world, and power, It's really important to start understanding the public so that we can interact at an early stage so that we can apply insight and scale. The interactions that the public can provide in the trial,” Kyle said at a press conference today in London. “So yes, the chat system started speaking half French through a series of tests, but that was a mistake we learned from.”
The developments come at a crossroads in the development of AI.
The Labor government, on the other hand, has doubled down on the idea of building an AI economy in the country. Partnering with private AI companies to invest more in their operations here; infrastructure such as data centers and supercomputers to support AI services; There is a huge commitment from the government to invest in AI services themselves. First, Today it unveiled new AI tools.All are still in development: a multipurpose AI assistant for government employees called “Humphrey”; push to build more consumer-facing AI tools; More data sharing between government departments to build and operate AI services.
On the other hand, there are still many questions about how AI services will perform in the coming years. OpenAI Anthropic, A new wave of services built by Mistral and other companies has seen the UK take a leading role in the global conversation about AI security just over a year ago. privacy and data protection; Copyright and AI to create misinformation; How AI can be misused for nefarious purposes such as malicious hacking assistance and more.
The push for more digital services in the UK comes at the same time as the US is doubling down on the role it will play in the tech sector in that country. On President Trump's first day in office yesterday, his new administration was led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, dubbed DOGE. Withdrawn. government An executive order from his predecessor, Joe Biden, sought to reduce AI risks to consumers and businesses. This means setting up and running safety tests on AI systems is no longer necessary.
The new government said. GOV.UK The wallet will allow users to securely store government-issued documents on their phone and easily access them when needed, it said. This can be more convenient when you're on the move and only have one phone and no physical wallet. “This technology will use the security features built into modern smartphones, including the facial recognition checks used when people pay using a digital bank card,” it said. “It means digital documents are more secure even if a device is lost.”