LABOUR is pushing for greater use of AI to replace Civil Service jobs while ignoring the huge energy and environmental costs, Britain’s biggest civil servants’ union annual conference heard yesterday.

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union delegates voted to lobby for the government to assess on the impact of its AI Opportunities Action Plan on jobs and energy consumption.

Defra London and South & East delegate Athene Dilke said that she did not believe environmental impacts have been factored in.

“I think they want to cut our jobs, they are cutting our offices and I think they want to replace us with AI,” she said, warning of water scarcity due to the technology’s growing energy demands.

Another delegate said: “We cannot let US-based tech companies infiltrate our public services like, for example, Palantir has done in the NHS and has been able to use that data as it wishes.”