OpenAI and the UK form partnership to expand AI research, infrastructure

Britain and ChatGPT maker OpenAI have signed a new strategic partnership to deepen collaboration on AI security research and explore investing in British AI infrastructure, such as data centres, the government said on Monday.

“AI will be fundamental in driving the change we need to see across the country – whether that’s in fixing the NHS (National Health Service), breaking down barriers to opportunity or driving economic growth,” Peter Kyle, secretary of state for technology, said in a statement.

“This can’t be achieved without companies like OpenAI, who are driving this revolution forward internationally. This partnership will see more of their work taking place in the UK.”

The government has set out plans to invest 1 billion pounds in computing infrastructure for AI development, hoping to increase public compute capacity 20 fold over the next five years.

The United States, China and India are emerging as front runners in the race to develop AI, putting pressure on Europe to catch up.

The partnership with OpenAI, whose tie-up with Microsoft once drew the scrutiny of Britain’s competition regulator, will see the company possibly increase the size of its London office, and explore where it can deploy AI in areas such as justice, defence, security and education technology.

In the same statement, OpenAI head Sam Altman praised the government for being the first to recognise the technology’s potential through its “AI Opportunities Action Plan” – an initiative by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to turn the UK into an artificial intelligence superpower.

The Labour government, which has struggled to increase economic growth meaningfully in its first year in power and has since fallen behind in polls, has said that the technology could increase productivity by 1.5% a year, worth an extra 47 billion pounds ($63.37 billion) annually over a decade.

($1 = 0.7417 pounds)

—Muvija M and Juby Babu, Reuters