OpenAI is expanding in the UK with a new deal with the UK Government to develop public services based on artificial intelligence (AI).
The firm behind ChatGPT has signed an agreement to expand AI security research collaborations, explore investing in UK AI infrastructure like datacentres, and to use AI in taxpayer funded services like security and education, as set out in the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan.
It is the latest in a series of partnership announcement the UK Government has made with big US tech companies. Earlier this month Google Cloud signed a deal targeting the government’s figure of £45 billion in productivity savings across the public sector every year. More recently, it announced a $1 million programme, funded by Meta, to bring the UK’s top AI experts into government to build AI tools for the public sector.
The partnership with OpenAI will focus on deploying AI in areas such as justice, defence and security, and education technology to make taxpayer funded services more efficient and effective, said the Government.
At the same time, OpenAI plans to increase the size of its London office, building out what was the company’s first international location two years ago.
Signed today by Technology Secretary Peter Kyle and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the Memorandum of Understanding sets out plans to “maintain a world-leading UK AI ecosystem rooted in democratic values”.
AI Growth Zones
The agreement means that OpenAI could also look to invest in and support AI Growth Zones, which has since been backed by £2 billion in the Spending Review.
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The Government said that with more than 200 bids from across the country, AI Growth Zones are set “to become hotbeds for AI infrastructure attracting billions of pounds in investment each.” It has also confirmed that Scotland and Wales will both host AI Growth Zones in its Compute Strategy.
The initiative follows the UK investing up to £500 million in sovereign AI that will be spent backing national “AI champions”.
Technology secretary Peter Kyle said AI will be fundamental in driving change in public services, but that “can’t be achieved without companies like OpenAI, who are driving this revolution forward internationally.”
ChatGPT at work in government
ChatGPT already underpins multiple tools in ‘Humphrey’, Whitehall’s AI assistant that aims to speed up the civil service by taking away admin burdens.
GPT 4o is used in ‘Consult’, the tool that speeds up the policy making process by automatically sorting public responses to consultations – doing a task that takes officials weeks in minutes, while leaving important decisions to experts.
In addition to supporting infrastructure plans laid out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, OpenAI may also explore developing AI-enabled R&D infrastructure in the UK, focused on “shared areas of strategic interest” with the UK Government.
