The government is to invest £100m in an AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) to counter biological risks posed by AI.
Anthropic and OpenAI will contribute £200m in compute and model credits.
Increasingly capable AI systems can create new biological risks. The AIBL will develop technical capabilities that help the UK better understand, prevent, detect and respond to biological threats.
The lab will harness frontier AI to support partners, including the UK’s national biosecurity centres and life sciences industry, to detect biological threats earlier and accelerate the discovery, development and testing of vaccines, treatments and other medical countermeasures, enabling the UK and the world to respond faster to disease outbreaks and strengthening resilience against future biological risks.
The lab will bring together frontier AI and biological science talent to develop practical technical capabilities. Initial delivery will focus on developing and deploying capabilities that enhance early detection of emerging biological threats and accelerate the development of vaccines, treatments and other medical countermeasures.
The lab will work with public-sector organisations, academic institutions, industry partners and frontier AI companies in the UK and internationally.
The government intends for AIBL to be supported by both public and philanthropic funding.
OpenAI will provide £100m in compute and model credits and trusted access to its most capable relevant models through the Rosalind Biodefense programme.
Anthropic will provide up to £100m in model credits, trusted model access and dedicated technical support.
AIBL will also partner with Google DeepMind and pioneering UK AI life sciences company Basecamp Research on research collaborations and AI for science tools.
Basecamp Research will provide access to its AI-biology models, capabilities and technical expertise to tackle priority biosecurity challenges.
Google DeepMind scientists and biosecurity experts will partner with AIBL on research collaborations and will look to provide trusted access to frontier Gemini and specialised science models.
AIBL will operate as an independent, non-profit organisation and is designed to establish the UK as the world-leader in AI-enabled biosecurity. Similar to the AI Security Institute, it will attract leading industry and academic technical talent and operate with sufficient autonomy to move with the speed and focus of a frontier AI–bio company.
AIBL will be supported by a scientific advisory committee drawing on expertise from academia, industry and the third sector. Further details on the scientific advisory committee will be set out in due course.
AIBL is being launched as part of a National AI Biosecurity Initiative, bringing together the UK Health Security Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory with the AI Biosecurity Lab and the Life Sciences sector.
AIBL will also work with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to prepare for health emergencies and inform the regulation of AI-designed medicines.