Taking intentional steps with AI in CALP

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around and many of us are using it in our everyday lives, often without thinking about it. Software navigation is helping us get from place to place and spell checkers and translation software are helping many of us with communication.  

But it wasn’t until the launch of Chat GPT in November 2022 that talk about the use of AI hit mainstream conversations daily. Around the same time, discussions about AI also started gaining traction within the CALP team, initially through an informal group of staff sharing ideas and experiences of using AI tools.  

Rather than leave the discussion to informally bubble, we decided to formalize and broaden the discussion. The aim was to support CALP to take ethical and appropriate steps towards the use of AI tools in our work.

An internal task team was formed and with the support of  Torchbox, a UK-based non-profit digital-focused agency, we launched an extensive staff consultation process. This process culminated in the production of two documents: a set of AI Principles and a Roadmap to guide CALP’s work in the short to medium term – which in AI terms, spans just a few years! 

We developed six Principles which will guide us as we manage the implementation of AI, balancing the benefits and positive impacts with the risks that AI presents. These Principles are: 

1. Prioritize human oversight and quality control
2. Adhere to ethical considerations and prevent harm
3. Protect user data and privacy
4. Maintain transparency and credibility
5. Enhance efficiency, innovation, and access to tools
6. Foster human connection and expertise. 

While the roadmap identified potential AI tools, it did not establish a detailed deployment pipeline as initially expected. We discovered that many of tools that would help us require expensive licenses, posing a challenge in our current funding environment. As a result, the roadmap became more of an atlas, highlighting various use cases across different teams which need to be explored further and prioritized. This approach empowers individuals and teams, with management support, to explore and adopt the tools that best suit their needs.