Abstract
South Africa has had challenges translating policies into practice since the dawn of the multi-party democracy in 1994. The changing global environment, triggered by the 4IR, has produced technological transformations which present the opportunity for improved public policy-making and implementation through the use of AI. If the government aims to keep up with these new developments and transform the public policy process, it is vital that it harnesses the opportunities presented by AI technology. The focus of this investigation is to assess the role of AI in improving public policy-making and implementation. The study aims to evaluate the role of data in the development of AI technology and systems, and its role in policy decisions. Data has become a valuable asset in this technological era and the government needs to realise this in order to improve the policy decision-making process. Research has revealed that data is not only important for the development of AI technology; it is also useful in informing policy decisions. The significance of this study for South Africa is that it indicates how the government and policy makers can leverage AI for data-driven policy-making and policy implementation. This is necessary to address the social, economic, technological, and political issues the country is faced with; whilst also improving the development discourse. The researcher adopted a qualitative research approach for this study, which is exploratory in nature, to get an in-depth understanding of what AI is and how it works in the public policy process. The study recommends the need to invest in research and development of AI technology in order to develop trustworthy AI technology and regulation that is suited to the South African context and not simply copied or imported from the west. The South African government needs to adopt a proactive approach rather than letting the private sector take the lead in the development of AI technology to avoid lagging behind and not realising the full benefits of this technology.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, public policy, public policy-making, public policy implementation.