UK Budget to fund £100m 'world first' AI Biosecurity Lab
BBC News reports the UK will commit £100m in Wednesday's Budget to a national AI Biosecurity Lab, backed by £200m in model credits from OpenAI and Anthropic.
The story in focus
The UK government will commit £100m in Wednesday's Budget to establish a national AI Biosecurity Lab, BBC News reported. OpenAI and Anthropic will provide £200m worth of AI model credits. The Budget also includes £120m for the AI Security Institute, £60m for a National Cyber Shield and £70m for a vulnerability centre.
- BBC News reports £100m from Wednesday's Budget will fund a national AI Biosecurity Lab, described by the government as a world first
- OpenAI and Anthropic will supply £200m worth of AI model credits to support the lab
- A further £120m is pledged to the UK's AI Security Institute, established in 2023
- The Budget also includes £60m for a National Cyber Shield and £70m for a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre
- The government says full details of the lab's role and remit are yet to emerge
What the Budget commits
The chancellor will use Wednesday's Budget to commit £100m to a national AI Biosecurity Lab, which the government calls a world first, BBC News reported. The institute is intended to strengthen UK defences against emerging biological threats.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan described it as a major new global institution bringing together scientific expertise so the UK can keep pace with threats spanning cyber attacks and biological risks. The government says the lab's full role and remit have not yet been set out.
Industry support and wider spending
OpenAI and Anthropic will provide £200m worth of AI model credits for use of their models in support of the lab. The Budget also adds £120m to the AI Security Institute, set up by the previous Conservative government in 2023 to evaluate risks from the most advanced models.
Alongside this, £60m goes to a National Cyber Shield, which the government says will use agentic AI to bolster cyber-defences, and £70m to a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre intended to detect flaws across critical infrastructure and the economy.
Context on AI-found flaws
The announcement follows the government's disclosure that it was among organisations worldwide to take some sites offline as a precaution after critical flaws were found in PHP, a widely used server-side scripting language. Researchers warned platforms using it could be exposed to hacking; no successful exploits of the flaw, dubbed php2shell, have been reported. Experts cited by BBC News said the episode shows how quickly dormant bugs can surface with AI.
How much will OpenAI and Anthropic contribute to the new AI Biosecurity Lab?
BBC News reports the two AI developers will provide £200m worth of AI model credits, which can be spent on use of their models, supporting the £100m national lab announced in Wednesday's Budget.
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