UK pledges $800 million to defend against AI threats

According to Reuters, the UK announced about £600 million ($800 million) in funding, mainly to defend against health and safety threats posed by AI, with the largest share going to a new biosecurity program, including £100 million to build an AI Biosecurity Lab that uses AI to detect biological threats and £65 million to develop pathogen countermeasures. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the lab's goal is to become an institution that brings together the world's top scientific expertise and protects people from emerging biological threats. OpenAI and Anthropic will provide up to £200 million in model credits, and Google DeepMind and Basecamp Research will provide other support. The existing AI Security Institute receives an additional £120 million, £130 million goes to critical infrastructure cyber defense projects such as the National Cyber Shield, and the remaining funds go to investment in robotics and manufacturing, research on AI's economic impact, a chip design academy, local AI jobs and more.