UK Unveils £600 Million AI Security and Biosecurity Plan

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The UK has announced plans to invest more than £600 million to make AI safer, spot biological threats, and build up the country's own AI technology. The government wants to use AI while preparing for the risks it could bring.

The plan was announced on October 24, before the government's upcoming Budget. It includes £165 million for a National AI Biosecurity Initiative. Of this, £100 million will fund a new AI Biosecurity Lab. The lab will use AI to find and track biological threats. Another £65 million will support efforts to monitor biological threats and develop medical tools to fight dangerous germs known as priority pathogens.

OpenAI and Anthropic will provide up to £200 million worth of credits for using their AI models to support the initiative. Google DeepMind and Basecamp Research, a life sciences company based in London, will also take part.

The government will give the AI Security Institute an extra £120 million to expand its research and testing of new AI abilities and risks. The institute creates technical safety standards and tests AI systems to help find possible dangers and reduce them.

Cybersecurity is another main focus. The government will spend £60 million on a National Cyber Shield, which will use AI that can carry out tasks on its own to strengthen the UK's cyber defences. The plan includes a £25 million fund to support British companies and experts working on AI and cybersecurity. The government also plans to explore a special testing area where AI security tools can be tried under more flexible rules before wider use in important infrastructure, public services, and businesses.

A separate £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre will use AI tools to find security weaknesses in important infrastructure and across the wider economy.

The plan also aims to make Britain less dependent on technology from other countries. Another £60 million will go to the Sovereign AI Fund to invest in British AI companies, including those developing robots, systems that work on their own, and AI for industry. A further £60 million will support research and the purchase of AI tools, including those for healthcare and security.

The government will also invest £18 million in an advanced chip-design academy and set up an AI cybersecurity centre of excellence in Manchester to train specialists.

The plan also addresses concerns about how AI could affect the economy. The government will provide £10 million each year to study how AI might change jobs and industries. It will also provide £23 million over three years to the AI Economics Institute to study how AI could affect productivity, economic growth, and people's living standards.

The announcement comes as more people worry that powerful AI systems could be used to take advantage of weaknesses in digital systems. The government said stronger national defences and technology developed in Britain would be important to making sure people across the country benefit from AI without leaving the UK open to new threats.