Liz Kendall urges UK public to embrace AI as government makes first £500m fund investment | AI (artificial intelligence)
The UK technology secretary has called on the country to “make AI work for the UK”, allaying fears about its impact on jobs and cybersecurity as the government announced its first investment under a £500 million standalone AI fund.
Liz Kendall said the UK must “seize” the opportunity presented by AI, despite concerns this month when US startup Anthropic revealed it had developed an AI model that poses a potentially significant cyber threat.
Asked what the government’s stance is on adopting a technology that could disrupt jobs and now cybersecurity, Kendall said: “We need to address this to make it work for Britain, for our businesses and to solve the biggest challenges we face as a world.”
Speaking on Thursday as the government announced its first investment in a UK company as part of its £500m AI fund, Kendall acknowledged that “people are worried about the risks and what that means for their business”, but AI entrepreneurs also believed they could “make things work, they could create jobs”.
In January, Kendall admitted that “some jobs will disappear” as AI automates certain tasks and roles, but it will also create new employment opportunities.
The government announced on Thursday that it has acquired an undisclosed stake in London-based Callosum, which helps different types of computer chips work together efficiently to train and run artificial intelligence models. He also acquired shares in a second business, whose name has not yet been disclosed.
Six British companies will also get access to a government-funded network of supercomputers to help them develop artificial intelligence models in exchange for a “right of first refusal” to invest in some of these firms. The value of this supercomputer access is included in the £500 million fund.
Startups using this extra computing capacity include Prima Mente, which creates “biological base models” to fight diseases like Alzheimer’s; Cursive, a company developing autonomous AI agents founded by Google DeepMind alumni; and Odyssey, which develops ‘world models’, an approach to artificial intelligence in which systems interact with a convincing simulation of the real world.
By supporting national AI champions, the UK can ensure internationally competitive companies “start, scale and stay right here in Britain”, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. The standalone AI unit, designed to act like a venture capital fund, was officially launched on Thursday at the London offices of driverless car startup Wayve, currently valued at $8.6bn (£6.4bn).
Callosum co-founder Danyal Akarca said the UK was the “natural place” to launch his company due to strong university talent and dedicated AI labs such as DeepMind.
