Opportunities and Threats of AI - The Engineer's Ring

The opportunities and threats posed by the revolution in Artificial Intelligence and new technology have been explored at a conference for environmental health professionals.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) AI and Tech Conference: Empowering Efficient Services featured a range of illuminating and insightful talks from a range of speakers.

The brand-new conference was headlined by a keynote session on ‘AI: The risks, rewards and readiness’, led by Tom Hindmarch, Digital Policy Adviser – Cyber, Digital & Technology at the Local Government Association (LGA).

Tom delved into the risks and rewards of using AI for local authorities and the work of the LGA in this area during his engaging session.

Timothy Laurence, Data Scientist and Amy Douglas, Lead Epidemiologist – Gastrointestinal Infections in the Food Safety & One Health Division at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), presented an evaluation of AI and its potential role in public health, including introducing a case study on how AI could help scientists to detect and investigate foodborne illness outbreaks.

Other highlights included talks from conference headline sponsor Meta Street talking about smart regulation in action and fellow sponsor RHE Global on using AI to support safeguarding, summarise reports and streamline workflows.

The conference concluded with a session led by James Johnson, Regulation & Enforcement Manager at Lichfield District Council and CIEH Trustee, who spoke about the transformative impact of using body worn cameras in his team’s work, with wide-ranging benefits including it acting as a deterrent, producing quality evidence and increasing public confidence.

CIEH President Mark Elliott, who chaired the conference, said:

“The emergence of AI and developing technologies are now and will increasingly have a profound impact on the work of environmental health professionals, so CIEH’s first ever conference on this topic was a timely and hugely valuable event for all those in attendance.

“There was a great deal for Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) to take back to their day-to-day roles, lots of learning and insights and hopefully a confidence that environmental health can utilise the benefits of AI and new technologies with the same values we have worked to throughout our careers and make sure it ultimately serves the public good.”

More information about upcoming events organised by CIEH can be found here: www.cieh.org/events