Google, OpenAI and Anthropic back £100m UK AI biosecurity lab Tech Google Deepmind, OpenAI and Anthropic are backing a new £100m British AI biosecurity laboratory as the government unveils more than £600m in funding to tackle emerging technological threats. The lab will use AI to detect and monitor biological threats, bringing together some of the world’s largest AI developers as ministers seek to strengthen Britain’s defences. [...]
Starling warns UK risks being ‘second in the queue’ on AI Tech Britain risks becoming “second in the queue” for AI unless it invests more in domestic infrastructure, a government AI adviser has warned, as Starling Bank becomes the first lender to train an AI model on a UK sovereign cloud. Harriet Rees, Starling’s chief information officer and the Treasury’s AI champion for financial services, warned that [...]
Anthropic blocks AI weapon plots after ‘catastrophic’ risk warning Tech Anthropic has blocked attempts to use its AI models to help develop biological and conventional weapons, days after its own researchers sounded the alarm over the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI. The Claude-maker uncovered five cases in which researchers used its technology “in ways that could support biological weapons development”, according to a new [...]
AI startup boss warns UK cannot become ‘dependent’ on overseas tech July 15, 2026 UK AI infrastructure company Valarian has raised $50m (£37m) in fresh funding as its boss said countries should focus on controlling AI infrastructure rather than competing to build their own frontier models. The Series A round, led by Silicon Valley investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA), takes the London firm’s total funding to $70m and marks [...]
Trump to reject UK plea over Anthropic ban as AI ‘kill switch’ fears grow June 16, 2026 The White House is poised to reject Keir Starmer’s attempt to restore British access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, in a move that has exposed how dependent the UK has become on a handful of American Big Techs. Downing Street has spent recent days lobbying Washington for an exemption after the Trump administration blocked [...]
Google hit with UK-first AI crackdown over publisher content June 3, 2026 Google will be forced to give publishers greater control over how their content is used in AI-generated search results after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) unveiled what it described as a “world-first” intervention aimed at re-balancing power between Big Tech and content creators. The move comes as publishers increasingly complain that Google’s AI Overviews [...]
Meta spies on workers’ every click to build the AI that will replace them April 22, 2026 Meta will be installing tracking software on its employees’ computers to capture their every keystroke and mouse movement, using the data to train the very AI models the company hopes will one day do workers’ jobs for them. According to Reuters, Meta confirmed the programme – known as the Model Capability Initiative – (MC) in [...]