UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced that Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic, three technology companies widely regarded as global industry leaders in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, have agreed to provide the UK with early access to their AI models.
Sunak made the announcement in a speech at the opening of London Tech Week, an event organizers described as a "global celebration of tech, bringing together tomorrow's most innovative thinkers and talents in a week-long festival. ." He made the comments as he explained a three-part plan to ensure the UK's artificial intelligence systems are deployed in a safe and secure manner. According to the presentation, the first step is to conduct cutting-edge security research: “We are collaborating with cutting edge labs – Google DeepMind , OpenAI, and Anthropic. I am pleased to announce that they have committed to early or priority access to models for research and security purposes to help build better evaluations and help us more A good understanding of the opportunities and risks of these systems."
The prime minister went on to explain that the second step in the UK's plan is to recognize that AI as a technology does not "respect traditional national borders", making it necessary to form a global working group. Finally, the third step, according to Sunak, is to invest in both AI and quantum to "capture the extraordinary potential of AI to improve people's lives." He cited recent investments of $1.125 billion in computing and $2.75 billion in quantum technologies as steps the UK has already taken to achieve this goal . It is unclear what form of "early or priority" access the UK government will be granted, or when such access will be provided.
Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic have historically offered beta and limited preview versions of their large language models such as Google's Bard, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude. The three companies also invest in internal testing by company scientists and external testing by contract experts.
The prime minister did not make clear whether the UK would have access to production models before the public or contractors, or if the pledge was simply to provide access to the government and other priority researchers. The comments come at a time when regulatory work in the UK is active. Not only is parliament racing to provide comprehensive protections for citizens against the recent boom in generative artificial intelligence, but it is also under increasing pressure to regulate cryptocurrencies, blockchain and Web3 technologies.
