UK to invest £100m in 'world first' AI Biosecurity Lab
The UK says it will establish a national AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) to help strengthen its defences against emerging biological threats.
As part of Wednesday's Budget, the government will commit £100m to establishing the new, "world first" institute with the support of leading AI firms.
The more funding announced by the Chancellor will aim to help ensure the lab can continue its efforts and work, particularly amid growing calls for technical standards and guardrails for AI development.
But the AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said it would be a "major new global institution" that brings together "world-leading scientific expertise" to ensure the UK can safeguard its citizens and goals as AI develops.
There have been no reports of any successful exploits of the flaw, coined php2shell, so far.
Researchers who helped surface the vulnerabilities in PHP - a popular server-side scripting language used in web development for decades - warned platforms which use it could be exposed to potential hacks.
It comes after the UK government revealed it was among organisations around the world to have taken some sites offline as a precaution after critical flaws were surfaced in a popular programming language.
The chancellor will also pledge millions of pounds in spending across a range of initiatives aimed at shoring up the UK's ability to respond to evolving cyber, biological and AI-enabled threats.
Established by the former Conservative government in 2023, the lab evaluates the risks of the most advanced and powerful models - and has been championed for its role in helping build a collaborative and open approach to AI testing.
It will come alongside a £60m investment in what it coined a "National Cyber Shield" which it said would use agentic AI to boost cyber-defences, and £70m funding towards a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre.
This, it said, would harness AI tools to detect cyber vulnerabilities across the UK's critical infrastructure and economy.
What happened
As part of Wednesday's Budget, the government will commit £100m to establishing the new, "world first" institute with the support of leading AI firms.
The more funding announced by the Chancellor will aim to help ensure the lab can continue its efforts and work, particularly amid growing calls for technical standards and guardrails for AI development.
What changed
But the AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said it would be a "major new global institution" that brings together "world-leading scientific expertise" to ensure the UK can safeguard its citizens and goals as AI develops.
There have been no reports of any successful exploits of the flaw, coined php2shell, so far.
Who is affected
Researchers who helped surface the vulnerabilities in PHP - a popular server-side scripting language used in web development for decades - warned platforms which use it could be exposed to potential hacks.
It comes after the UK government revealed it was among organisations around the world to have taken some sites offline as a precaution after critical flaws were surfaced in a popular programming language.
Why it matters
The chancellor will also pledge millions of pounds in spending across a range of initiatives aimed at shoring up the UK's ability to respond to evolving cyber, biological and AI-enabled threats.
Established by the former Conservative government in 2023, the lab evaluates the risks of the most advanced and powerful models - and has been championed for its role in helping build a collaborative and open approach to AI testing.
Technical details
It will come alongside a £60m investment in what it coined a "National Cyber Shield" which it said would use agentic AI to boost cyber-defences, and £70m funding towards a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre.
This, it said, would harness AI tools to detect cyber vulnerabilities across the UK's critical infrastructure and economy.
But experts have warned that the incident shows how quickly and easily bugs which have lain long dormant may be surfaced - and potentially exploited - using AI.
Attribution
BBC News: The UK says it will establish a national AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) to help strengthen its defences against emerging biological threats.