{"slug": "how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails", "title": "How UK.gov's new AI tool is trained on \"synthetic emails\"", "summary": "The UK government's AI and Data Readiness team has developed 'Project Kestrel', an end-to-end prototype that uses OpenAI large language models to generate 'synthetic emails' for training an email-sorting system, overcoming a common data blocker in the public sector. The Government Digital Service created 'Tiger Heron', a synthetic email generator that produces realistic emails without using live data, according to Senior Product Manager Faye Greasley, who said the approach could apply beyond email.", "body_md": "[AI](/tag/ai/)\n\nOne of the UK government’s latest AI projects is using OpenAI LLMs to create “synthetic emails” for training an email-sorting system, overcoming a common data blocker for public sector projects.\n\nThe government’s AI and Data Readiness team shared details of “Project Kestrel” in a __gov.uk__[ blog post](https://dataingovernment.blog.gov.uk/2026/08/05/how-we-used-ai-to-help-government-manage-its-email-backlog/?ref=thestack.technology) recently, describing how the “end-to-end prototype” used LLMs to create a dataset it could train its central Cuckoo system on.\n\nSenior Product Manager Faye Greasley said the Government Digital Service team created “Tiger Heron”, a synthetic email generator that produced emails appearing similar to the day-to-day communications processed by the public sector without using live data.\n\nShe said: “Access to a safe, realistic data set is one of the most common blockers to data innovation in the public sector. Tiger Heron may offer a practical model for getting past it and one that could apply well beyond email.”\n\n**Tigers, Herons, and Cuckoos**\n\n## Get the full story: Subscribe for free\n\nJoin peers managing over $100 billion in annual IT spend and subscribe to unlock full access to The Stack’s analysis and events.\n\n[Subscribe now](https://www.thestack.technology/membership/)\n\nAlready a member? [Sign in](https://www.thestack.technology/signin/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails", "canonical_source": "https://www.thestack.technology/uk-ai-tool-trained-synthetic-emails/", "published_at": "2026-08-10 14:12:42+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-10 14:35:42.993490+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["UK government", "OpenAI", "Government Digital Service", "Faye Greasley", "Project Kestrel", "Tiger Heron", "Cuckoo"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-uk-gov-s-new-ai-tool-is-trained-on-synthetic-emails.jsonld"}}