AI Beyond Industry: Higher Education and Government — Nayara Albrecht | AI in Production 2026

AI beyond industry: the opportunities, ethics and practical challenges of adopting AI in the public sector — and how UK policymakers actually engage with it. Presented by Nayara Macedo de Medeiros Albrecht (Newcastle University) at AI in Production 2026 — The Catalyst, Newcastle, 5 June 2026. ABOUT THE TALK Artificial intelligence has increasingly reshaped the workplace in recent years. While it holds significant potential to boost productivity, it also raises important questions about labour markets and employment. Although there is an active debate on the use of AI, evidence on how it is actually used within the public sector remains limited. This talk explores the opportunities and challenges of adopting AI in public administration, including ethical considerations and practical issues like AI literacy and its potential benefits for policymaking. Drawing on recent research, it examines how policymakers in the UK engage with AI and the challenges they face in doing so. It also addresses the policy dimension of AI, focusing on how regulatory frameworks can promote—or hinder—the ethical use of AI in the public sector, and what "ethics" means in practice. SPEAKER Nayara Macedo de Medeiros Albrecht — Newcastle University: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/ LinkedIn:   / nayara-albrecht-07083358   Website: https://nayalbrecht.github.io/ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/... ——————————————— AI in Production is Jumping Rivers' conference for data scientists, ML engineers and AI practitioners building and deploying AI & ML in the real world. The inaugural event was held at The Catalyst, Newcastle Helix, on 4–5 June 2026. 🎟 Event & full programme: https://ai-in-production-2026.jumping... ▶ More talks from the conference:    / @jumping-rivers   📑 Full playlist — every AIP 2026 talk:    • AI In Production 2026   🌊 Organised by Jumping Rivers: https://www.jumpingrivers.com/ With thanks to our sponsors — Databricks, Posit, the Royal Statistical Society, Chapman & Hall/CRC, and the National Innovation Centre for Data. Community partner: DevITJobs.uk. #AIinProduction #AIP2026 #MachineLearning #LLMs #AIEngineering