The UK Government is offering up to £8.5 million in research grants to improve the security of new AI technologies.
At the AI Seoul Summit, Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan announced grants to researchers to study how to protect society from AI risks such as deepfakes and cyberattacks, as well as helping to harness its benefits, such as increased productivity.
The most promising proposals will be developed into longer-term projects and could receive further funding.
The programme will be led within the UK Government’s AI Safety Institute by Shahar Avin, an AI safety researcher who will be joining the UK’s Institute on secondment, and Christopher Summerfield, UK AI Safety Institute Research Director.
The research programme will be delivered in partnership with UK Research and Innovation and The Alan Turing Institute and the UK AI Safety Institute will aim to collaborate with other AI Safety Institutes internationally.
Examples of proposals within scope would include ideas on how to curb the spread of fake images and misinformation by intervening on the platforms that spread them, rather than on the AI models that generate them.
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Applicants will need to be based in the UK but will be encouraged to collaborate with other researchers from around the world.
Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan, said: “When the UK launched the world’s first AI Safety Institute last year, we committed to achieving an ambitious yet urgent mission to reap the positive benefits of AI by advancing the cause of AI safety.
“With evaluation systems for AI models now in place, Phase 2 of my plan to safely harness the opportunities of AI needs to be about making AI safe across the whole of society.
“This is exactly what we are making possible with this funding which will allow our Institute to partner with academia and industry to ensure we continue to be proactive in developing new approaches that can help us ensure AI continues to be a transformative force for good.
“I am acutely aware that we can only achieve this momentous challenge by tapping into a broad and diverse pool of talent and disciplines, and forging ahead with new approaches that push the limit of existing knowledge and methodologies.”
