[7] Freedom (of information)…brain requires rebooting

I feel like I have just been treading water the last few weeks. It’s a combination of work, home and study pressures but today has been the first day I feel like I can touch the ground (not to labour the metaphor). It’s still going to be busy for the next few weeks but I feel in a more manageable way *taps wood*.

The ChatGBT hype has been pretty loud over the last few weeks. I suppose working in ‘the industry’ as well as the news cycle and ethical data course amplified the volume. I’m lucky to have colleagues who also recognise the hype-cycle and the balanced side of the argument, so work wasn’t too bad. Though I had the joy on LinkedIn of sharing a video from a researcher on how it was sexist and getting a daft reply. The findings were that chatgbt when asked to write performance reviews for job titles (non-gendered prompts) assumed a gender for certain roles and then, for assumed female individuals, gave more critical feedback (all unprompted). A gentleman in my network decided to try and debate that it was just ‘reflecting facts’ and when prompted to consider if we should be designing AI for the world we have or the world we want he said that pushing ‘my opinion’ into the AI would be wrong, but refused to acknowledge that all existing biases exist because of someone’s opinion somewhere…it was exhausting enough for me to opt out of the conversation.

The political rhetoric in the UK has been particularly exhausting recently too. It’s actually made me strongly reconsider my content consumption habits. I am usually quite compartmentalised with my content consumption, for example, I don’t read the news on the weekends, I curate my social feeds to be a place of relaxation and exploration (think messages with friends, funny videos of cows and handy crochet tips) and I usually have a book or two on the go that is pure fiction. The political aspect has started to seep into my reading content and social consumption to the point that I find myself ‘doom scrolling’ on weekends. I’m certainly not a head-in-the-sand type person but I recognise it also not healthy to just consume negative input constantly and so I’m considering how I change this. A newspaper doesn’t quite seem right as I tend to enjoy a wider range of views – perhaps a good old fashioned curated RSS feed dump that I just look at once a day?

Inclusive Society – I branched out and did something ‘creative’ for this assignment and feel incredibly uncomfortable about it. I’ve regretted it since I hit submit and worry for my grade, but also recognise that I have to try something different. It wasn’t fully creative – as in it was still written word – but let’s see what comes of it.
Ethical Data Futures – I’ve really loved this course content and the extra support from the tutors. My boss was open to me focusing on B2B data rather than customer data and that has been a great outcome from this course for me personally. I wish the other students engaged as much on the ‘off’ weeks with the case studies as I think the assignment will be tough – but I suppose that is a finding in itself.
Building Near Futures – this course continues to be great fun. I have really enjoyed the group I am working with and our project is coming along nicely. I’ve not been in ‘delivery’ mode at work for a while, I’ve mostly been focused on pitches, so this project is filling that gap of actually producing something that I’m missing at work.
Work Futures – this was a LOT of reading before the intensives but all great content. I just was trying to squeeze it in around work so I don’t think I retained as much as I wanted to and will have to go back over some bits. This was the course I had the most anticipation for this term and it held up. Great two days, was a fully focused discussion of what the future of work could look like and I feel comfortable about the assignment. Just got to do it now!

I got a response from the DWP for my FOI regarding if they use any automation for PIP processing! On time as well, which I was very surprised by. Their response is:
An increasing number of claimants are being offered the option of completing their Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application online.
There is no automation involved in the assessment process. All digital applications are processed manually by a Healthcare Professional who will advise on the level of functional needs on a case-by-case basis.
There is no automation used subsequently in the decision-making process. All awards are determined by DWP Case Managers, based on the recommendations made by the Healthcare Professional, together with any other evidence received, again on a case-by-case basis.

I have to take this reply at face value, so it means that if I go down the PIP-project route I will need to find people who have been on PIP pre-digitalisation and interview them regarding the paper vs digital route and find out if they feel the change in application process has impacted their outcome. It’s still a valid project and would be more about accessibility and inclusivity. I just really want this MSc to be a route into further research and while this is a very important topic, I’m not sure how it will impact what I do in the future. I might reach out to Juli/JB and discuss what is possible.