How can Greater Manchester ensure that its residents are involved in the design and implementation of AI and automated decision-making? Join us for a two hour workshop to make your voice heard.

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Increasingly, algorithms are being used to automate decision-making in the public sector. Sometimes they are used to support humans to make final decisions, sometimes decision-making is entirely automated – their form can vary from simple to complex algorithms and AI. Some potential areas for their use in the public sector might be the benefits, health or school systems.

Automated decision-making can bring a variety of benefits, but it also comes with risks so it’s important that these systems are used in an appropriate way.

Our project aims to develop a set of principles, or similar resource, that can help embed strong public engagement and accountability around the use of automated decision-making systems in Greater Manchester. We hope this will both:

• support the practice of those within the public sector; and
• provide a resource that those outside the public sector can use to ensure that appropriate standards of public engagement and accountability are in place.

Who is this workshop for?

We want to ensure that the final outcome of this project takes into account the diversity of people in Greater Manchester and the variety of needs and perspectives present in the area. We have designed this session to specifically hear from people working outside the public sector who:

• Are interested in how public engagement is used to ensure automated decision-making systems are managed appropriately;
• Can help us learn more about how public engagement can be used to influence automatic decision-making system;
• Can inform us about the needs of marginalised communities with regards to public engagement and/or automated decision-making.

What will happen on the day?

Our aim for the event is to gain understanding around the needs of those who will be using this resource, as well as learning from existing good practice. This will be an interactive workshop where we will create space for you to:

• Share your experiences and knowledge of public engagement with the public sector;
• Have open conversations about worries and hopes around automated decision-making;
• Discuss what standards of public engagement might be needed to hold the public sector to account with regards to the use of automated decision-making systems.

Venue, refreshments and accessibility

The workshop will be held through Zoom and a collaboration platform that everyone can contribute to (e.g. Google doc or Miro). We will also ensure there is a break in the workshop and will encourage attendees to self-manage.

We strive to make all our events as accessible as we can, if you have any specific requirements, please let us know.

If you are attending this event in a personal capacity (not as part of your job) then we have some funding available, if needed, to cover costs of taking part and can provide a £30 highstreet voucher to thank you for your time. Please contact us about this if relevant to you.

This workshop will be online. We will also be holding an in person version of this event which you can sign up for here.

Find out more

If you have any questions or would like to know more about this project, feel free to send us an email on mat@opendatamanchester.org.uk or hello@opendatamanchester.org.uk.