Simon Baugh’s Post

Thanks Simon - I think there is a blind side to all of this that communicators need to marry up right now with those who have governance and oversight responsibilities in their organisations. Outside of comms there are likely many people using Ai tools already as part of their day to day. There is of course opportunity in this - but also risk. A) most organisations don’t have AI policies in place as they do for social media or data so the AI usage happening is under the radar and B) there is nothing to stop individuals entering user data or sensitive informationinto AI tools and causing a major breach and a slew of bad headlines C) absolutely we must drive the positive of this but we also need to get the policies and reactive lines in place for when things inevitably go wrong…. Don’t get me wrong. I am no Cassandra when it comes to this. I love it and the sooner we adopt it the better but we need to be the advocates and the policemen internally on this or we will all be chasing our tails on the incoming headlines

excellent speech and timely. Thanks to Stuart Bruce for pointing it my way in his newsletter. One sentence stood out: "AI won't take our jobs, but someone who is better at using AI might." I keep having this conversation, we don't go to the library to look up a fact in an Encyclopaedia Britannica anymore, so why do we imagine we will always start a new task with a blank sheet of paper. AI is here, so if you're not harnessing it, you should assume someone else doing your job already is.

Thank you for sharing how the Government Communication Service is responding to the challenges and opportunities of AI. These are difficult issues. There’s a lot for professions like Comms and HR to learn and navigate, especially in terms of values, ethics and diversity. I’d suggest following (and even better working with) experts like Dr. Joy Buolamwini to learn more about ethics, diversity and inclusion in AI. #CodedBias

It's a broad and finely nuanced speech, well balanced for its audience, Simon Baugh. I suspect that in other situations it won't work so well - especially as events with the NYT this week have shown the importance of understanding copyright with generative AI. This in itself isn't critical, but perhaps it's a signpost to how the doubters will seize reasons not to adopt.

Thanks for sharing, Simon Baugh. This could be extremely helpful for some of the Inspire programme colleagues who are about to work on these topics for their masterclasses module! Yvonne McKeown Chartered MCIPD Anne Gregory

This is so inspiring to read, Simon. I agree with so much of it. I’ve noticed that using AI as a “co-pilot” requires a new, and quite detail-oriented, skill set - the granularity to be able to fact check, edit, adapt, and even ask new questions based on content provided. Developing or ensuring those capabilities will be crucial. I’ll also send you our new report on scaling public-purpose innovation, out in a few days! That need for high-trust and efficient evidence sharing between departments and teams on what works, or not, feels key. Thanks for sharing this speech!

Thought this was a great speech. I don’t think the importance of your point to upskilling comms professionals to know how to use AI most effectively, it’s limitations, and how to be aware of what it’s limitations and inherent biases might be can really be stressed enough!

This is really great. Thank you for sharing. Great to see GCS developing its on LLM based on standards and models such as OASIS. Will this be available to other public sector partners in due course?

THIS: "The biggest threat to your job today isn't AI. It's someone who knows how to use AI better than you."