British Government to Establish Task Force for Safe AI Development with £100 Million Investment
On April 25th, the British government announced the establishment of a task force aimed at developing safe artificial intelligence (AI), with an initial investment of £100 million to support the initiative. The goal of this task force is to develop independent capabilities in AI technology and infrastructure and ensure international competitiveness.
The Safe AI Task Force will focus on improving the safety and reliability of AI models known as foundation models, in both scientific and commercial fields, to enable the safe and reliable use of AI throughout the economy. Experts from the government and industry will come together to establish a reporting system directly to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Technology.
The Prime Minister and Technology Secretary announced the £100 million in initial start-up funding, in addition to the £900 million investment into compute technology at the Budget. The investment will fund a new government-industry task force to ensure sovereign capabilities and broad adoption of safe and reliable foundation models, helping to cement the UK’s position as a science and technology superpower by 2030.
Foundation models, including large language models like ChatGPT and Google Bard, are AI systems trained on massive data sets that can be used for a wide range of tasks across the economy. With AI set to contribute billions of pounds to the UK GDP, the work of the Taskforce will help deliver on the Prime Minister’s priorities to grow the economy while generating better outcomes for people across the country through better public services.
The Taskforce’s investment will build the UK’s “sovereign” national capabilities, enabling public services to benefit from the transformational impact of this type of AI. The Taskforce will focus on establishing the UK as a world leader in foundation models and their applications across the economy, acting as a global standard-bearer for AI safety.
The Taskforce 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 Taskforce while the appointment is ongoing.
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