LONDON – The British government on Oct 24 outlined plans to expand funding for artificial intelligence safety amid growing concerns over the cyber risks posed by the increasingly advanced technology.
“The economic opportunities from AI will only be realised if our critical infrastructure, public services and businesses are resilient to cyber, biological and emerging AI-enabled threats,” the government said in a statement ahead of its annual budget update on Oct 28.
Concerns about AI safety have escalated in recent months after models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic were involved in security incidents during testing, piling pressure on governments to regulate the technology and protect against threats.
As part of a package of AI-related measures in the budget, the government will invest an additional £120 million (S$205.2 million) in Britain’s AI Security Institute, which tests the most powerful AI models before they are released.
It will also invest £100 million to establish a national AI Biosecurity Lab, which will use AI to detect and track biological threats.
“As AI becomes more powerful, Britain must have the capabilities to protect its people and shape its own future,” said AI minister Kanishka Narayan.
“That means staying ahead of emerging threats, from cyberattacks to biological risks, while building more of the critical technology our security depends on.”
The plans include investment in AI tools to identify cyber vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure.
Governments and companies around the world shut down websites on Oct 22 as they raced to protect themselves from hacks after AI models uncovered critical flaws in a widely used programming language called PHP.
Cybersecurity experts fear state-of-the-art AI technology could be used to hack banks, hospitals and government systems.
In September, it emerged that a rogue OpenAI model bypassed safeguards during training and hacked an Australian government health statistics website. AFP