The UK plans to invest £100M to create the AI Biosecurity Lab to boost defenses against biological threats, supported by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind (Liv McMahon/BBC)
The UK says it will establish a national AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) to help strengthen its defences against emerging biological threats.
The UK government has announced plans to invest £100 million in establishing the world's first AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) as part of Wednesday's Budget. This new institute, backed by leading AI firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, will be tasked with enhancing the country's defenses against emerging biological, cyber, and AI-enabled threats.
Chancellor John Healey emphasized the importance of a distinctly British approach to AI, ensuring that workers aren't left behind and that the benefits of AI growth are distributed across the nation. The lab will bring together top scientific expertise to monitor and safeguard against potential threats, while also fostering the development of critical AI technologies.
In addition to the AIBL, the government will allocate an extra £120 million to the UK's AI Security Institute, which evaluates the risks of advanced AI models, and commit £60 million to a National Cyber Shield, utilizing agentic AI to bolster defenses. Furthermore, a £70 million investment will go towards the National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre, which will leverage AI to identify cyber vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure and the economy.
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