Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) was the ineluctable information management topic of 2023. For, without data, there is nothing for large language models (LLMs) to work their magic upon.
GenAI is then, unsurprisingly, a big theme of the Computer Weekly top 10 information management stories selected for 2023.
But also picked out are two broad trends in data analytics and management. One is the role of data in healthcare. The other is the increasing centrality of data to organisations’ high-level strategies. Thus, the continuing consolidation of the chief data officer (CDO) role, which can be subsumed into the traditional office of the CIO – which would have been more of a chief infrastructure role a decade or so ago, despite the word “information” in the title.
And so, this selection of 10 pieces includes three on data and healthcare and two illustrating the salience of the CDO role. Many more of the latter ilk could have been selected, but Computer Weekly also sports a top 10 CIO stories for 2023. Here, we have the chief data officers of Very and DFS.
The first five pieces are, however, about data and GenAI – which Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), an IT analyst firm owned by Computer Weekly publisher TechTarget, found to be ranking higher than sustainability and cloud migration as a strategic priority for enterprise IT globally.
First up is a conference-related overview blog on the topic, Boffins in clover. Then follows an article on the role of GenAI in education, looking at how it can enhance rather than undermine learning.
The need for “guardrails” – to use an American term – in application to AI in general, and generative AI in particular, has been a constant in the public discourse on the topic this year. One story here looks at a UK government proposal to create a code of practice for GenAI companies. And another details how the Trades Union Congress has launched an AI “taskforce” aimed at instigating new laws to safeguard workers’ rights and ensure the technology has broad social benefits.
Finally, under this heading, is featured a supplier blog post, from Qlik, that aims to give practical advice to organisations about their data strategies in respect of GenAI, one year on from the birth of ChatGPT.
Healthcare is an area where the virtues of artificial intelligence and of modern data management and analytics practices have been much touted over the past five to 10 years. One data analytics company seems to have been singled out for controversy in UK healthcare: US specialist in data technologies popular in the western defence and security communities, Palantir. September 2023 saw the final award by NHS England of a £330m, seven-year contract to run its Federated Data Platform to Palantir, prompting concerns from data privacy practitioners. Computer Weekly has published a good deal on this story, including a blog that reflected on whether the, then potential, Palantir award, whatever its technical merits, was, or was not, worth the aggro. NHS England decided, in the end, that it was.
Also featuring in the list is a story about the Scottish Government’s health data strategy. And, less parochially, a feature about artificial intelligence in healthcare in northern Europe, mainly the Netherlands.
