UK government tells civil servants to use lighter AI models and skip the 'thank yous'

Around September 25 the UK government issued official AI usage guidance for civil servants centered on using AI less and lighter, citing environmental protection and lower compute costs. The guidance was promptly criticized online, with industry figures arguing the sector has taken a wrong turn.

Confirmed

The official guidance requires civil servants to confirm AI is truly needed before use, and to check whether a spreadsheet could solve the problem first
It recommends lighter models: GPT instant over GPT thinking, Gemini Flash over Pro — the "good enough" and most power-efficient option
It asks for short prompts to reduce environmental burden, and even to skip saying "thank you" to models for environmental reasons
The stated rationale is environmental protection and reduced compute costs, positioning AI as a last-resort tool

Why it matters

eurofoundor mocked the guidance as a "use less AI for the environment" guide; Alexandr Wang, zetalyrae and chalmermagne all argued the industry has gone down the wrong path — instead of using AI to automate work, effort is spent writing guides telling people to use less AI
The episode highlights the gap between the public sector's conservative AI adoption and the industry's expectation of accelerating AI-driven productivity, sparking discussion of AI energy consumption and public-sector digital strategy

2026-09-25 ~ 2026-09-26 · 7 related posts

Primary sources

UK government AI guidance: civil servants told to use Gemini Flash and skip saying thanks — chalmermagne · 2026-09-25 18:20 (UTC+08:00)
UK government publishes official AI rules: check if a spreadsheet can do the job first — nicolechirps · 2026-09-26 02:16 (UTC+08:00)

[source] UK government AI guidance: civil servants told to use Gemini Flash and skip saying thanks — chalmermagne · 2026-09-25
UK government guidance tells civil servants to use lighter AI models, skip 'thank yous' for the environment — Miles_Brundage · 2026-09-25
[source] UK government publishes official AI rules: check if a spreadsheet can do the job first — nicolechirps · 2026-09-26
UK Government Publishes Official Rules for Civil Servants' AI Use, Gets Mocked — alejandroll10 · 2026-09-26
UK Gov AI Guidance Tells Civil Servants Not to Say 'Thank You' to Models — dc_lawrence · 2026-09-26

2 near-duplicate retellings: zetalyrae · csuwildcat