AI Navigator helps public officers find global government projects and connect with owners

Public officers can now browse government artificial intelligence (AI) projects from around the world and connect directly with the project owners to learn more through a new website. 

Launched last week, the government AI navigator was built by Apolitical, the UK-based social learning network for public servants, and Google.org. 

The navigator provides access to over 300 projects across 40 countries and is available for free to use by sign-ups for all public officers and policymakers. 

Officers can search the projects by sector, geography and scale, and use the site's built-in translation tools.  

Talking to GovInsider, Apolitical’s Head of Research, Ula Rutkowska says: “There’s no shortage of AI pilots in government right now, but the challenge is that nobody can see them all in one place”. 

Apolitical’s internal study found that 40 per cent of public servants currently spend about a week or more just collating evidence before starting new work related to AI.  

She notes that knowledge gaps are not limited to only across borders, but domestically within governments as well. 

"Many public servants don't even know what's happening in the department next door,” she says. 

Self-publication as the core tenet 

The tool allows users to add a project in minutes with an AI-assisted submission process.  

Every project connects back to its owner, so others can connect to ask questions directly. 

She adds that self-publication by public officers themselves is the “core tenet of the tool”, instead of being a repository that is curated top-down. 

“Previously, if a project (or part of a project) didn't work out, that knowledge would usually disappear,” she notes, adding that the tool lets officers publish these projects too, so others can learn from what didn't work and what they would do differently. 

“We learned that failure builds more trust than a polished success story,” she notes. 

Co-designed with public officers 

Apolitical said the tool was co-designed with a council of public sector AI experts and leaders, to ensure it meets governments' needs and includes the right information. 

The council includes the former US federal chief information officer (CIO), Clare Martorana; Ukraine’s former wartime deputy digital minister, Valeriya Ionan; and Slovenia’s former digital minister, Mark Boris Andrijanič. 

“The council told us the contact's name is often the single most valuable line in any case study,” says Rutkowska, highlighting this as the “clearest insight” from the co-design process. 

The IMF's Fiscal Monitor found that countries could gain around 30-40 per cent more value for money by adopting practices already proven to work elsewhere.