UK Funds Safe AI

In April this year, the UK government pledged £100M in funding to form a task force to help the UK build and adopt the next generation of ‘safe AI’. The task force will be modelled on the COVID-19 vaccines task force. Its purpose will be to develop a ‘safe and reliable use’ of AI across the economy and ensure the UK is globally competitive in its AI technology.

Foundation models in AI include large language models like ChatGPT and Google Bard which have received much press and ‘expert’ attention over the past year over the safety of their development because they are trained on potentially sensitive and huge volumes of text, images, video, and audio much of which may contain unrecognised biases.

The work of the task force will help deliver priorities to grow the UK economy, whilst generating better outcomes for people across the country through better public services.

In areas such as healthcare, AI has enormous potential for speeding up diagnoses, drug discovery and development. While, in education AI could transform teachers’ day-to-day work, freeing up their time to focus on delivering more effective teaching.

The adoption of AI technology is vital in growing the UK economy which is in danger of being left behind as other countries capitalise on this lucrative market. However, to support businesses and public trust in these systems and drive the adoption of AI, the task force will work with various sectors towards developing the safety and reliability of foundation models, both at a scientific and commercial level.

The task force will be led by an expert Chair, who will be announced later in the summer. Matt Clifford, Chair of the Advanced Research, and Innovation Agency will advise the Prime Minister and Technology Secretary on the development of the task force while the appointment is ongoing.

Foundation models rely on significant computing power, and this investment comes on top of around £900 million for a new ‘exascale’ supercomputer and a dedicated AI Research Resource to equip the UK with the processing power to support the next generation of AI.

Doug Gurr, Chair of, the Alan Turing Institute, said, “We congratulate the government on this exciting investment which will keep the UK at the cutting edge of this transformative technology and look forward to continuing to work with all the relevant partners to help develop breakthrough AI applications in a safe, reliable, trustworthy and ethical way.”

AI, if deployed safely and responsibly, will revolutionise how we live and work. This initial funding will help the UK AI industry greatly, it will help achieve safe deployment and protect national security, whilst harnessing AI’s power to transform public services.

The funding follows Business Connect, an event bringing government and industry together to focus on making Britain the most innovative economy in the world. DSIT Minister of State George Freeman led a panel on the government’s work in digital technology and life sciences and, together with the current Chancellor, recently spoke about how these high-priority sectors could help accelerate economic growth across the UK.