Tech tycoons must not be allowed to ‘let rip’ with AI, minister warns

Tech barons must not be allowed to “let rip” with artificial intelligence (AI), a senior minister warned as John Healey prepared to use the Budget to boost investment in the technology.

AI minister Kanishka Narayan said the UK had a role to play in developing and harnessing the rapidly developing technology without allowing all-powerful industry tycoons to do as they please.

The Chancellor has promised a “distinctively British” approach to the technology as he acknowledged the “concerns of working people” about its rise.

A new “biosecurity lab” will seek to use AI to protect against potential future pandemics as part of a package of investment, the Chancellor said,

Backed by up to £200 million from OpenAI and Anthropic and £100 million from UK Government, the “world-first” unit will help to develop medical “countermeasures” for new pathogens, officials said.

The lab is part of wider efforts to harness AI to protect Britain’s interests and bolster homegrown capability amid growing warnings about the dangers of allowing the technology to advance unchecked.

Frontier AI development is largely being led by firms based in the US and China.

AI minister Mr Narayan told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “To me, I think the central political fault line is not whether you’re pro-AI or anti-AI.

“The central political fault line is: are you passive in the face of AI, or are you actively shaping it in the interest of your public and your country?

“So yes, there are people on the further side of the left who just say ‘let’s not build it, let’s give it to foreign countries, as we did with the last wave, and just sit back because we don’t want to listen to the change that is clearly being sounded out’.

“There are people on the further right who say ‘give it to the tech barons and let them just let rip on our economy and on our society’. I think that is totally inappropriate.

“And what I’m focused on, and the Government is focused on, is to say that we have to do our best to shape this in the interest of Britain and the British public.”

As part of the wider Budget package, an additional £120 million investment will go towards Britain’s AI Security Institute to develop standards guarding against the risks of the technology, the Treasury said.

The Chancellor’s plans include £10 million a year dedicated to understanding how AI will change industry, amid widespread fears over the prospect of job losses, and how Britain needs to prepare for it.

A new £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (Nerv) centre will also use AI tools to detect cyber threats across the UK’s critical infrastructure and economy, Mr Healey said.

A further £60 million will go into the sovereign AI fund to support promising British AI firms with another £60 million to support contracts for using the technology in areas including the NHS.

It comes in the wake of global online disruption caused by a security flaw in the popular PHP programming language that saw 32 UK Government services temporarily offline amid a scramble to address vulnerabilities.

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) experts worked with OpenAI, whose technology was used to discover the issues, to contain the fallout.

Critics have called for a slowdown in AI development amid warnings from experts that the technology could wipe out humanity within a decade without controls in place.

The UK Government has said robust safeguards must be in place to ensure developers are able to build machines that keep human beings in charge.

Separately, the Chancellor is also expected to promise an extra £20.4 billion to state-owned, economic development lender the British Business Bank and the National Wealth Fund, as first reported by the Financial Times.

More than 100,000 jobs across the country are expected to be created by the move from 2028-29 including in the AI sector, the UK Government said.

Business groups welcomed the AI package but opposition critics dismissed it as a “shopping list of projects” without any clear strategy.

British Chambers of Commerce director of policy Kate Shoesmith said: “More funding for the Sovereign AI Fund should strengthen the cohorts of the UK’s homegrown talent, while a new UK Advanced Chip Design Academy is a step towards bolstering capability and resilience.”

She added: “Government should now look to address barriers to AI adoption to unlock growth across all firms.”

Jordan Cummins, a director at the CBI, said: “The Chancellor is right to put security, resilience and trust at the heart of the UK’s approach to AI. Firms will adopt AI faster and at greater scale when they are confident that it is safe, secure and working in the interests of their workforce.”

Shadow AI minister Ben Spencer said: “AI is built by business, not Government.

“Ministers should cut burdens on British firms, fix grid connection delays, reject protectionism and instead back the capabilities we need, including stronger cybersecurity and biosecurity, and ensuring our AI Security Institute maintains its world-leading position and advance access to AI models.”