UK commits £100 million to planned AI biosecurity laboratory

The UK government has announced £100 million to build a laboratory that will use AI to detect and monitor biological threats, ChainCatcher reported, citing Bloomberg. OpenAI and Anthropic will provide up to £200 million in AI model usage credits. The laboratory will collaborate with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research. The government also allocated an additional £65 million to develop countermeasures against pathogens. The announcement includes an additional £120 million for the AI Safety Institute, which regularly evaluates advanced AI models, and £23 million for the newly established AI Economy Institute to analyze AI's economic impact. The model credits are a separate contribution from the laboratory's government funding.