Britain can lead in making AI a tool to strengthen society

BEHIND the scenes of everyday life, artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how societies think about governance and security.

- Professor Yu Xiong

FLAWED LOGIC: Tech turns cop Tom Cruise into a fugitive in Minority Report

The idea of predicting crime was once the domain of science fiction. The Tom Cruise film Minority Report imagined police intervening before a crime was committed. Today dozens of police forces have trialled profiling systems to do just this.

The challenge is not whether Al should play a role but how it can be designed to strengthen fairness, trust and resilience. Without effective management it risks undermining these principles. Used narrowly for prediction, Al often proves flawed and can hard-wire injustice into code. But when designed carefully it can support social safety in more holistic ways — acting as a partner to human judgment rather than a replacement.

This avoids the caricature of Alas a simple job destroyer and instead highlights its potential to create new forms of work and opportunity. Public services beyond policing are exploring similar tools, like local councils testing AI to decide who gets housing support, while the NHS is looking at systems that forecast which patients are most likely to miss appointments.