UK Allocates £600 Million to Address AI Threats

The UK government announced about £600 million ($800 million) in funding, mainly to guard against health and safety threats brought by artificial intelligence. The largest share goes to a new biosecurity program, including £100 million to build a laboratory that uses AI to detect biological threats, and £65 million to develop countermeasures against pathogens; UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the goal of the AI Biosecurity Lab is to become a global institution that brings together top scientific experts and protects people from emerging biological threats. OpenAI and Anthropic will provide up to £200 million in model credits to the program, and Google DeepMind and London-based AI life sciences startup Basecamp Research will also provide other assistance.