The funding programme will be directed by the UK’s AI Safety Institute, with grants being used to understand and mitigate the impacts of artificial intelligence, including any systemic risks it presents at the societal level
Digital secretary Michelle Donelan has announced that the UK government will provide up to £8.5m in grants for artificial intelligence (AI) safety research, during the second day of the AI Seoul Summit.
While the overall research programme will be headed up by the UK’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), which was established in the run-up to the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November 2023, the grants will be awarded to researchers studying how to best protect society from the risks associated with AI, such as deepfakes and cyber attacks.
The government said research grants will also be given to those studying ways to harness the benefits of AI to, for example, increase productivity, adding that the most promising proposals will be developed into longer-term projects and could receive further funding down the line.
Delivered in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Alan Turing Institute, the AISI programme will also aim to collaborate with other AI safety institutes globally, as per the Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science signed by 10 countries and the European Union (EU) on the first day of the South Korean summit.
The government added that the grant programme is also designed to broaden the AISI’s remit to include the field of “systemic AI safety”, which aims to understand and mitigate the impacts of AI at a societal level, as well as to figure out how various institutions, systems and infrastructure can adapt to the technology.
While grant applicants will need to be based in the UK, the government said they will be actively encouraged to collaborate with other researchers from around the world.
“When the UK launched the world’s first AI Safety Institute last year, we committed to achieving an ambitious yet urgent mission to reap the positive benefits of AI by advancing the cause of AI safety,” said Donelan.
“With evaluation systems for AI models now in place, Phase 2 of my plan to safely harness the opportunities of AI needs to be about making AI safe across the whole of society.
“This is exactly what we are making possible with this funding, which will allow our institute to partner with academia and industry to ensure we continue to be proactive in developing new approaches that can help us ensure AI continues to be a transformative force for good.”
PHOTO BY DAVID WOOLFALL“This funding will allow our AI Safety Institute to partner with academia and industry to ensure we continue to be
