The UK government has announced an AI Biosecurity Lab, an independent non-profit that will use frontier AI to spot emerging biological threats earlier and speed up vaccines, treatments and other countermeasures. The government is putting in £100 million, as part of a £165 million National AI Biosecurity Initiative that also includes £65 million for biological surveillance and countermeasures against priority pathogens.

The labs are funding much of the firepower — in credits, not cash. OpenAI will provide £100 million in compute and model credits and trusted access to its most capable relevant models through its Rosalind Biodefense programme; Anthropic will provide up to £100 million in model credits, trusted model access and technical support. Google DeepMind and UK life-sciences company Basecamp Research join as research partners.

The lab anchors a wider package of more than £600 million for AI security and cyber defence to be set out in next week's Budget, including £120 million more for the AI Security Institute and £130 million for national cyber work. AI minister Kanishka Narayan said the aim is for the lab to become 'a major global institution' protecting people from emerging biological threats.