The UK government’s Redbox AI chatbot is being used by thousands of civil servants, but a lack of transparency about exactly how they are using it has experts concerned
By Chris Stokel-Walker
28 April 2025
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, wants to make the country a world leader in artificial intelligence
PA Images/Alamy
Thousands of civil servants at the heart of the UK government, including those working directly to support Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are using a proprietary artificial intelligence chatbot to carry out their work, New Scientist can reveal. Officials have refused to disclose on the record exactly how the tool is being used, whether the prime minister is receiving advice that has been prepared using AI or how civil servants are mitigating the risks of inaccurate or biased AI outputs. Experts say the lack of disclosure raises concerns about government transparency and the accuracy of information being used in government.
After securing the world-first release of ChatGPT logs under freedom of information (FOI) legislation, New Scientist asked 20 government departments for records of their interactions with Redbox, a generative AI tool developed in house and trialled among UK government staff. The large language model-powered chatbot allows users to interrogate government documents and to “generate first drafts of briefings”, according to one of the people behind its development. Early trials saw one civil servant claim to have synthesised 50 documents “in a matter of seconds”, rather than a full day’s work.
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All of the contacted departments either said they didn’t use Redbox or declined to provide the transcripts of interactions with the tool, claiming that New Scientist’s requests were “vexatious”, an official term used in responding to FOI requests that the Information Commissioner’s Office defines as “likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustifiable level of distress, disruption or irritation”.
However, two departments did provide some information about their use of Redbox. The Cabinet Office, which supports the prime minister, said that 3000 people in its department had taken part in a total of 30,000 chats with Redbox. It said that reviewing these chats to redact any sensitive information before releasing them under FOI would require more than a year of work. The Department for Business and Trade also declined, stating that it held “over 13,000 prompts and responses” and reviewing them for release would not be feasible.
When asked follow-up questions about the use of Redbox, both departments referred New Scientist to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which oversees the tool. DSIT declined to answer specific questions about whether the prime minister or other cabinet ministers are receiving advice that has been prepared using AI tools.