Key facts
- AI is secretly embedded across the UK Home Office, according to a report.
- The technology is used in tasks including sham marriage detection and age assessment of asylum seekers.
- AI is also employed for border surveillance, asylum interview summarization, and case prioritization.
- The report, 'Automated Discrimination: Unpacking the Digital Hostile Environment', raises concerns about bias and discrimination.
- Open Rights Group calls for AI regulation, transparency, and a ban on human rights-violating uses.
Artificial intelligence has been secretly embedded across the UK Home Office, reinforcing a hostile environment for immigrants, according to a report by Open Rights Group (ORG). The technology is reportedly used for tasks ranging from detecting sham marriages and assessing asylum seekers' ages to analyzing border surveillance data and prioritizing immigration cases through the Identify and Prioritise Immigration Cases (Ipic) tool. The report, titled 'Automated Discrimination: Unpacking the Digital Hostile Environment', raises concerns that AI is not neutral, can replicate societal bias, and is being trialled in secrecy, with national security invoked to block information requests. ORG is calling for government regulation of AI, a ban on uses that risk human rights violations, greater transparency, and a public register of government AI tools. A Home Office spokesperson stated that AI is one of many tools used to protect borders and does not replace human decision-makers, with AI tools only assisting caseworkers in navigating information and not making decisions in isolation. The department regularly monitors the performance of these tools and has committed to publishing updated evaluations.