UK Commits £600 Million to AI Security, Including World's First AI Biosecurity Lab
The British government announced a £600 million package to guard against AI-amplified biological and cyber threats, with a new AI Biosecurity Lab at its centre and model credits pledged by OpenAI and Anthropic.
On 23 October 2026 the UK government unveiled an AI security funding package worth approximately £600 million (around $800 million), aimed at countering the biological and cyber threats that artificial intelligence could make worse. The centrepiece is a new AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL), described as the world's first organisation dedicated to AI biosecurity; it will receive £100 million, with a further £65 million set aside for pathogen countermeasures. The existing AI Security Institute receives an additional £120 million. Cyber defence gets £130 million, funding two new programmes: the National Cyber Shield and the National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre. A further £60 million targets British companies applying AI to robotics, autonomous systems and manufacturing, £60 million goes to AI research and procurement, £23 million to studying AI's economic impact, £18 million to a new chip design academy, and £15 million to a prize for AI solutions to public policy problems, beginning with healthcare. Alongside the public funding, OpenAI and Anthropic will provide up to £200 million in model credits to support the biosecurity effort — a ceiling rather than a guaranteed sum. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said the government wants AIBL to become a major global institution. The announcement follows Nvidia's separate $250 million commitment to UK AI safety research earlier in October 2026.
