The UK government set out around £600 million ($800 million) in AI-related funding on Oct. 24, largely aimed at health and security threats, Reuters reported. The package includes £100 million in public funding for a planned AI Biosecurity Lab. In its announcement, the Cabinet Office said the lab’s initial work would focus on detecting emerging biological threats earlier and accelerating the development of vaccines, treatments and other medical countermeasures. Those are goals for the lab, not demonstrated results.
Company support comes as credits and access
The Cabinet Office said OpenAI will provide £100 million in compute and model credits, plus trusted access to relevant models through its Rosalind Biodefense programme. Anthropic will provide up to £100 million in model credits, trusted model access and technical support. The combined commitment is worth up to £200 million, but it is not another £200 million in public cash funding. Google DeepMind and Basecamp Research are slated for research collaborations and AI-for-science tools, rather than the same credit commitments.
The wider package includes separate allocations reported by Reuters: £65 million to develop countermeasures against pathogens, an extra £120 million for the existing AI Security Institute and £130 million for cyber-defense projects. Sky News reports that the cyber projects include a £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability centre; that figure is part of the cyber allocation, not an additional amount.
The Cabinet Office says the lab will operate as an independent nonprofit. It says details of the lab’s scientific advisory committee will be set out later.
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