New AI for science announcements ahead of the Budget

The government has released a preview AI-related announcements which will be made by Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey in Wednesday’s Budget Statement.

The trailed initiatives include £165m in AI biosecurity, including £100m for an AI Biosecurity Lab which will “apply AI to the detection and surveillance of biological threats.” This laboratory will also receive funding-in-kind from Anthropic and OpenAI in the form of frontier model access and usage credits.

A further information page on the AI Biosecurity Lab specifically states that the facility will operate as an independent, non-profit organisation, and be supported by a scientific advisory committee with academia, industry and third sector representatives. In addition to OpenAI and Anthropic, the lab will partner with Google DeepMind and AI life sciences company Basecamp Research.

The Budget will also see an additional £120m for the AI Security Institute unveiled, as well as a further £23m for the AI Economics Institute, the government-sponsored research institute looking at the effects of artificial intelligence on work and employment.

There will be extra investment in the Sovereign AI fund, as well as funding for AI chip design capability in Edinburgh and a new AI cybersecurity centre of excellence in Manchester, with details yet to be confirmed.

The Chancellor will make a written statement to Parliament on Monday about the announcements, which the government characterises as a “distinctively British approach to AI.”