AIME of the game – DSIT’s tool for AI compliance

As AI becomes more and more integral to different business processes, compliance and good practice are also coming to the forefront. With that in mind, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) proposed an AI Management Essentials Tool (AIME) and opened a draft version of the initial AIME questionnaire up for consultation.

Following our lead of a response to the ICO’s consultations on AI last year, the Cripps commercial and technology team also put together a response on this consultation. The response includes a helpful summary and introduction, but if this is your first time hearing about AIME, or you don’t know why it might be needed, we’ve set out some more helpful background in this article.

Read our response to the AIME consultation.

What is AIME?

AIME is (or will be) a tool to allow organisations to review and improve their AI management processes. Users answer multiple choice questions and are provided with scores and action points (these are not available yet, so the consultation focuses on the questions). Currently, AIME is proposed to be voluntary (although there are suggestions of including it in government procurement processes) and does not provide a certification. Generally though, it should operate in a similar fashion to the Cyber Essentials scheme (without the end certification), or the ICO’s various self assessment tools.

Why would you need it?

Using AI in your organisation (either as a developer or as a user) comes with unique risks. While you might already have a general procurement process and policies to evaluate tools or systems which process personal data, specific AI-related issues also need to be considered. AIME addresses the types of procedures you will need to ensure you are responsibly using AI (such as identifying potential bias in the system and mitigating against it).

What should I do now?

If you’d like some more background on AIME, you can watch the December episode of our AI and data show featuring Emily Campbell-Ratcliffe, Head of AI Assurance at DSIT. If you use (or are planning to use) AI in your organisation, reading the draft AIME questionnaire is an excellent starting point. While it’s not complete, it highlights the different issues you should be thinking about. Other similar (often paid) tools exist, but the fact that DSIT has issued AIME suggests it may develop into a market standard and should form part of your compliance process (even if you also use other tools).

How we can help

If you’re unsure about how to go about actually putting in place the procedures AIME asks about, then talk to us about how we can help.