# How UK.gov's new AI tool is trained on "synthetic emails" > Source: > Published: 2026-08-10 14:12:42+00:00 [AI](/tag/ai/) One 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. The 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. Senior 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. She 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.” **Tigers, Herons, and Cuckoos** ## Get the full story: Subscribe for free Join peers managing over $100 billion in annual IT spend and subscribe to unlock full access to The Stack’s analysis and events. [Subscribe now](https://www.thestack.technology/membership/) Already a member? [Sign in](https://www.thestack.technology/signin/)