UK Vows £100 Million for Biosecurity Lab With OpenAI, Anthropic

The UK announced £100 million ($134 million) for a AI Biosecurity Lab which will be supported by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, part of a raft of measures designed to improve the government’s ability to understand and tackle the risks posed by the technology.

The lab will use AI to detect and monitor biological threats, with the funding coming alongside up to £200 million in AI model credits from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to a government statement. The lab will also work in partnership with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research, while the government announced a separate £65 million for developing countermeasures for pathogens.

“As AI becomes more powerful, Britain must have the capabilities to protect its people and shape its own future,” said Kanishka Narayan, Britain’s AI minister. “That means staying ahead of emerging threats, from cyber attacks to biological risks, while building more of the critical technology our security depends on.”

The lab “will be a major new global institution, bringing together world-leading scientific expertise to protect people from emerging biological threats and ensure Britain leads the world in AI safety and security,” Narayan added.

Its creation makes the government’s AI strategy increasingly clear: forming institutions outside of existing government departments to research, monitor and harness different aspects of the technology.

The announcement also included £120 million in extra funding for the AI Security Institute, which is the best-funded government agency focused on regularly evaluating cutting-edge AI models, and £23 million more for the AI Economics Institute, which is being set up to analyze the economic impacts of the technology.

‘Honest Broker’

The strategy is a key part of the country’s attempt to remain relevant in the AI space despite lagging behind the US and China on cutting edge AI models. It’s trying to act as an “honest broker” for monitoring and regulating, and taking a distinct role from the European Union, which has strongly regulated the tech.

“AI is changing both the biological risks we face and the nature of biological discovery, and we applaud the UK government’s foresight in opening the AI Biosecurity Lab,” said Matt Clifford, who leads International Affairs at Anthropic, and was the Prime Minister’s AI advisor until last June.

“Bringing together frontier AI, the UK’s scientific strength, and government expertise to detect threats earlier and speed up the development of medical treatments will contribute to the safe deployment of AI across industry and society,” he added.

The government also announced £130 million to use AI to identify cyber vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and the economy and improve the country’s cyber defenses. That comes after governments and companies around the world rushed to patch two critical flaws in widely used technology on Thursday, which AI helped to find.

There will also be a £120 million boost to the Sovereign AI Fund to broaden its remit to include physical and industrial AI such as robotics, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing, and expand its procurement program for British start-ups.