With the government keen for the UK to be a world leader in the development of AI, policy in the UK is evolving quickly. Data professionals can play a crucial role in this development, ensuring that AI models are built on solid data foundations, are ethical, robust, reliable, accurate and transparent. The RSS AI Task Force was established in June 2024 to strategically plan and lead RSS work on AI, aligning it with our five-year strategy and co-ordinating activities across the Society.
The group is chaired by Donna Phillips, vice chair is Janet Bastiman, and the group includes members from relevant RSS Sections and groups, including the Data Science and AI section, the Campaigns Advisory Group and the Data Ethics and Governance Group. The members of the task force, and the terms of reference, can be found on the
RSS - AI Task Force webpages.
The task force delivers its work through four sub-groups: Policy and Ethics; Evaluation of AI; Practitioner and Communications. The aims of each sub-group are:
- Policy and Ethics: lead the development of the RSS AI policy work, build relationships with policy makers and influence the development of AI policy
- Evaluation of AI models: ensure that the RSS can guide the field in better quantifying the performance and impact of AI models, alongside helping members to build more resilient, reliable and responsible AI models
- Practitioners: encourage AI practitioners to join the RSS, support their professional development and represent and amplify their voice.
- Communications: communicate and amplify the work of the task force to members, the media and to the wider public.
Recent work from the task force includes writing a
position paper on the UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and the response to it, taking part in the AI and Technology panel session at the UK Statistics Assembly and proposing sessions for the RSS International Conference 2025.
Over the next six to nine months, the task force plans to build our work across our priority areas of policy, ethics, evaluation and supporting practitioners and will be engaging more with RSS members. If you would like to engage directly with the task force, then please do email at
aitf@rss.org.uk.