Using AI ethically and sustainably

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Warning This is not a comprehensive guide, but a starting point to support your AI journey. This is not intended to be any form of legal guidance or advice, and should not be used as a substitute for independent legal advice.

You must use Artificial Intelligence (AI) safely, fairly and sustainably, especially for government work.

You must check and follow your department’s AI policies, as there may be specific tools or approaches you should use

Use AI responsibly

You are responsible for you work when you use AI. You need to check outputs are accurate and fair, and protect sensitive information.

The quality of the response depends on your prompts and the information used to train the tool. It may not give you what you want, and you may get a different response if you ask the same question again. Find out how to experiment with prompts.

Check AI outputs before you use them

AI systems (especially generative AI) can create content which looks correct but may be false, biased or unfair. When using AI you must review all content and check:

  • the information is correct (for example, ask for sources and confirm figures)
  • users or groups are treated fairly and equally
  • user or groups are not referred to using stereotypes or discriminatory language
  • outputs follow accessibility rules (find out about public sector accessibility requirements on the GOV.UK website)
If you are using an in-house product, you must report any inaccurate, biased or harmful content to the development team

Protect sensitive information

AI systems may use content you give them as training material (paid services may allow you to stop this). Use systems provided by your department for government work, and do not include any content with personal or identifiable information.

Take responsibility for your work

You are responsible for any content or decisions you make using AI. You must:

  • use your own judgement (don’t use it if you’re unsure)
  • be ready to explain any decisions made using AI
  • tell people you’ve used AI to help or edit content (be transparent)

Use AI sustainably

AI uses more energy and resources than standard tools. You need to consider if you need to use AI and make sure you are using it efficiently.

Choose the right tool for the task

There are many ways to do a task, and you may not need to use AI. Consider if a simpler tool could do the job (for example, a spreadsheet or search engine).

If you do need AI, if your model allows it, pick the smallest one which will do what you need, for example:

  • Gemini Flash instead of Gemini Pro
  • GPT Instant instead of GPT Thinking

You can’t change the model used by Microsoft Copilot.

Use AI efficiently

If you need to use AI it is important you use it efficiently, to reduce the environmental impact. For example:

  • keep your prompts short, clear and direct (find examples in our prompt library)
  • use as few prompts as possible (you don’t need to say thankyou)
  • only use AI when needed
  • find out how to use AI at work
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