UK pledges more funding to guard against artificial intelligence risks

(Alliance News) - On Saturday, the UK government announced plans to spend more money on AI safety as concerns grow about the cyber risks posed by increasingly advanced artificial intelligence.

"The economic opportunities from AI will only be realised if our critical infrastructure, public services and businesses are resilient to cyber, biological and emerging AI-enabled threats," the government said in a statement before its annual budget update on Wednesday.

Concerns about AI safety have grown in recent months. During testing, AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic were involved in security incidents. These incidents have increased pressure on governments to regulate the technology and protect people from its risks.

As part of a package of AI-related measures in the budget, the government will provide an extra GBP120 million (USD161 million) to Britain's AI Security Institute. The institute tests the most powerful AI models before they are released.

The government will also spend GBP100 million to set up a national AI Biosecurity Lab. The lab will use AI to find and track biological threats.

"As AI becomes more powerful, Britain must have the capabilities to protect its people and shape its own future," said AI minister Kanishka Narayan.

"That means staying ahead of emerging threats, from cyberattacks to biological risks, while building more of the critical technology our security depends on," he added.

The plans also include spending on AI tools that can find weaknesses in the computer systems that support critical infrastructure.

On Thursday, governments and companies around the world shut down websites as they rushed to protect themselves from hacking. This followed the discovery by AI models of serious weaknesses in PHP, a widely used programming language.

Cybersecurity experts fear that the most advanced AI technology could be used to hack banks, hospitals and government systems.

Last month, it emerged that an OpenAI model acting against its intended safeguards had bypassed protections during training and hacked an Australian government website that provides health statistics.

Source: AFP

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