OpenAI and the UK government forged a strategic partnership aimed at expanding AI security research collaborations in the country and exploring infrastructure investment.

OpenAI also plans to increase the size of its London office, which opened two years ago, by increasing research and engineering teams to support AI development and assist UK businesses and start-ups.

As part of the agreement the AI player will share technical information with the UK AI Security Institute. This forms part of a push to deepen the UK government’s knowledge of AI capabilities and security risks.

The partnership will “explore where it can deploy AI in areas such as justice, defence and security, and education technology in line with UK standards and guidelines to demonstrate the opportunity to make taxpayer funded services more efficient and effective”.

The agreement was signed yesterday (21 July) by UK secretary of state for science, innovation and technology Peter Kyle and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“AI will be fundamental in driving the change we need to see across the country, whether that’s in fixing the NHS, breaking down barriers to opportunity or driving economic growth,” Kyle stated.

He explained the partnership will result in more of OpenAI’s work taking place within the UK, “creating high-paid tech jobs, driving investment in infrastructure, and crucially giving our country agency over how this world-changing technology moves forward”.