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Sat, 24 Oct 2026

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 UK to invest £100m in 'world first' AI Biosecurity Lab

The chancellor will unveil AI spending aimed at shoring up the UK's defences in Wednesday's Budget.

* The UK government will establish a National AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) with £100m funding to strengthen its defences against emerging biological threats.
* The lab, supported by leading AI firms, is a "world first" and will bring together world-leading scientific expertise to safeguard citizens and goals as AI develops.
* The AIBL's creation will be backed by OpenAI and Anthropic, which are providing £200m worth of AI model credits for use in the lab.
* The UK government has committed an additional £120m to the AI Security Institute (AISI), established in 2023 to evaluate the risks of advanced AI models.
* Other initiatives announced include: + A National Cyber Shield, using agentic AI to boost cyber-defences, with a budget of £60m + A National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre, harnessing AI tools to detect cyber vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure and the economy, with a budget of £70m.