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AI Solutions Address Military Concerns: Speeding Up Soldier Recruitment Amidst Shrinking Forces

 


With the British Army facing a depleted workforce and an increased need for recruitment, artificial intelligence (AI) has been incorporated into its recruitment process to expedite its process. As part of a new AI system developed by outsourcing firm Capita, potential recruits' medical records are now analyzed rapidly to determine who is eligible for enlistment based on their medical documents. 

It enables recruiters to find and evaluate job candidates more efficiently by converting uploaded documents into searchable records, as well as putting emails, electronic documents, and voice messages into a single format, making them easier to find and evaluate. 

Since the service usually processes around 40,000 medical documents per year, the developer claims this technology is intended to improve efficiency. It has been reported that Capita's recruiters need to review more than 100 pages of complicated medical documents, a task that used to take almost an hour per applicant. 

By analyzing these records, the AI software simplifies the recruitment process, which lasts five months from application to basic training. AI recruiting has been instructed by the company to enrol 9,813 recruits this year, but the company is expected to only enrol 70% of that number. 

In a recent report issued by the British Parliament, "Ready for War?", the British Parliament asked the AI company to recruit. As a result, the Armed Forces are experiencing a crisis when it comes to recruitment and retention. According to a Tidio survey, 67% of HR professionals believe that AI recruiting technologies are valuable. 

The European Union reached an agreement on the world’s first extensive AI rules last year. However, 35% believe using technology still risks bias and overlooking unique and unconventional talents. A GP scanned or uploaded a patient’s documents onto a secure system a year ago, and this was a landmark agreement for the world. 

After the information has been converted by AI technology to searchable records, recruiters will be able to analyze the email, electronic documents, voice messages, and handwritten notes in one format, which can then be analyzed by recruiters in real-time. The military size of the United Kingdom has been falling sharply for many years. 

As a result, the efficiency of the military is improving, data security is improved, and applications are being scrutinized more rigorously. As part of the hiring process, recruiting staff needed to assess 40,000 of these medical documents manually, which were delivered by general practitioners each year. In an average case, recruiters analyze a health record that is between 50 and 100 pages long, taking at least an hour to evaluate each applicant. 

A Capita source said that since 2016 a 25 percent reduction in the amount of time it takes to process a job application had resulted from the changes, along with other modernizations. In recent months, more applications have been processed as a result of the use of artificial intelligence, according to a defence source who said that the firm had significantly reduced the timeframe for processing medical assessments after the tech was introduced to the company in the summer last year. 

The adoption of artificial intelligence in Army recruitment may have contributed to a positive outcome, but there are still concerns about its use by the Government despite its apparent success. As a few news agencies revealed last year, civil servants had been instructed not to use any ChatGPT services related to government work, due to security concerns, for any reason.

Capita Cyberattack Sees 90 Organizations Report Possible Data Breaches

 

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the data watchdog, has stated that it has received around 90 reports regarding possible breaches connected to Capita. 

In the realm of data protection in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) takes on the role of a guardian. Its primary function involves enforcing laws that govern communication, networking, and the security of data. 

The ICO ensures that businesses and organizations adhere to these laws, with the aim of safeguarding individuals' personal information. Its most notable role is in upholding the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

The ICO's primary objective is to ensure that businesses operating in the UK adhere to rigorous data protection principles, safeguarding individuals' privacy and personal information. Capita is a major supplier to UK government departments and is involved in various contracts within the private sector. 

These reports pertain to both the cyberattack that occurred in March and the recent discovery of an unsecured database. As per the information from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), it said that it is currently investigating two cyber incidents related to Capita. In March, Capita experienced a cyber attack that resulted in staff being locked out of Microsoft's Office 365 Productivity suite.

Although initially claiming no data was accessed, Capita later acknowledged that some data was exposed to malicious actors. Furthermore, it was confirmed that in the recent cyberattack on Capita, resulted in a breach of personal information of nearly 500,000 members of the USS lecturers' pension fund. 

Additionally, the ransomware group Black Basta has claimed responsibility for the breach. However, yet we are not informed about any ransom demands or payments, but Capita expects to face costs of £20m as a result of the incident. Furthermore, the Information Commissioner's Office further said that the exact count of companies impacted by the breach is currently uncertain. 

Capita provides services to a wide range of organizations, including the Ministry of Defense and the NHS in the public sector, as well as the Royal Bank of Scotland, O2, and Vodafone in the private sector. With over 50,000 employees, Capita holds substantial UK government contracts valued at over £8bn. 

The cyberattack has had an impact on various local councils in the UK. Barnet, Barking and Dagenham, Lambeth, and South Oxfordshire have all reported encountering issues due to the incident. Additionally, following the discovery of the unsecured AWS bucket, Colchester and Coventry city councils have come forward to acknowledge that their data may also be affected.