UK immigration watchdog considers inspecting asylum AI tools

The UK's immigration watchdog is considering investigating the Home Office's use of generative AI in asylum processing, WIRED reports. Campaigner Sara Alsherif said the inspectorate requested findings from Open Rights Group as it prepares next year's inspection priorities; the watchdog would not confirm topics under consideration. The tools use GPT-4 and Microsoft Foundry to summarize asylum interviews and search country policy information. Open Rights Group found unusable interview summaries exceeded the pilot's published 9 percent error rate and found no quality control for policy-search summaries. The Home Office says trained caseworkers make asylum decisions and cannot use the tools in isolation. The Information Commission is already investigating the department's refusal to disclose how staff use the tools and were trained.