by Carly Rolfe
Citizens’ Juries offer a novel way of gathering public opinion on important issues, which is used to inform decisions and policy-making at a national level. At the beginning of a Citizens’ Jury, a question is posed to public ‘jurors’. Expert ‘witnesses’ then provide detailed evidence for and against, providing jurors with a balanced view from which they ultimately make a decision on the issue.
This month, the NIHR Greater Manchester PSTRC, in conjunction with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Citizens’ Juries c.i.c. is running two Citizens’ Juries, the first in Coventry and the second in Manchester.
The juries will pose four questions around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for decision making in healthcare, criminal justice and recruitment. Specifically, jurors will be asked how important it is for AI to explain how it reaches its decisions, even if the ability to do so will make its decisions less accurate.
The results of the juries will feed directly into national guidance that the ICO is producing on citizens’ rights to an explanation when decisions that affect people are made using AI.
For more information, see the Citizens’ Juries page on the Greater Manchester PSTRC website, or the Citizens Juries c.i.c. website.
GM PSTRC 
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