The UK government has announced the creation of a new taskforce that will build and adopt the next generation of safe AI.

Announced on Tuesday by prime minister Rishi Sunak and science, innovation and technology secretary Michelle Donelan, the taskforce will receive an initial £100 million in start-up funding to help develop foundation models for use in fields such as healthcare and education.

Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard are examples of foundation models which are AI systems trained on large volumes of data to enable capabilities across a range of tasks. The government gave examples of use for this type of AI in healthcare to speed up diagnoses, and in education to free up teachers' time.

In a statement, the government said that the taskforce would be modelled on the Covid-19 Vaccines taskforce. It said that the first pilots targeting public services are expected to launch in the next six months.

Commenting on the taskforce, the prime minister said: “Harnessing the potential of AI provides enormous opportunities to grow our economy, create better-paid jobs, and build a better future through advances in healthcare and security.

“By investing in emerging technologies through our new expert taskforce, we can continue to lead the way in developing safe and trustworthy AI as part of shaping a more innovative UK economy.”

Matt Clifford, chair of the Advanced Research and Innovation Agency, will advise the prime minister and technology secretary on the development of the taskforce, with an expert chair to be appointed at a later date.

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