OpenAI and UK sign deal to use AI in public services

OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, has signed a deal to use artificial intelligence (AI) to increase productivity in the UK’s public services, the government has announced.

The agreement signed by the firm and the science department could give OpenAI access to government data and see its software used in education, defence, security, and the justice system.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said that “AI will be fundamental in driving change” in the UK and “driving economic growth”.

But digital privacy campaigners said the partnership showed “this government’s credulous approach to big tech’s increasingly dodgy sales pitch”.

The agreement says the UK and OpenAI may develop an “information sharing programme” and will “develop safeguards that protect the public and uphold democratic values”.

It also says they will explore investment in AI infrastructure, which usually involves building or expanding data centres – large banks of computer servers which power AI.

And OpenAI will expand its London office, which it says currently employs more than 100 people.

The commitment is a statement of intent, rather than a legally-binding deal, which sets out the goals of a partnership between the UK government and OpenAI.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the plan would “deliver prosperity for all”.

The collaboration could potentially free up “highly skilled public servants to focus on the difficult one-in-a-million situations that AI might struggle to address,” said Dr Gordon Fletcher, associate dean for research and innovation at the University of Salford.

But he said the challenge was whether it could “really be done transparently and ethically, with minimal data drawn from the public”.

Digital rights campaign group Foxglove called the agreement “hopelessly vague”.

Co-executive Director Martha Dark said the “treasure trove of public data” the government holds “would be of enormous commercial value to OpenAI in helping to train the next incarnation of ChatGPT”.

“Peter Kyle seems bizarrely determined to put the big tech fox in charge of the henhouse when it comes to UK sovereignty,” she said.

AI plans
Peter Kyle dined with Sam Altman in March and April of this year, according to transparency data released by the government.

In a recent podcast interview with former Downing Street adviser Jimmy McLoughlin, Kyle said he has to deal with “global companies which are innovating on a scale the British state cannot match”.

The deal comes as the UK government looks for ways to improve the UK’s stagnant economy, which is forecast to have grown at 0.1% to 0.2% for the April to June period.

In January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an “AI Opportunities Action Plan” designed to boost growth, which was backed by many leading tech companies.

At the time, Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of UKAI – a trade body representing British AI businesses – said the proposals took a “narrow view” of the sector’s contributors and focus too much on big tech.

The UK government has made clear it is open to US AI investment, having struck similar deals with OpenAI’s rivals Google and Anthropic earlier this year.

It said its OpenAI deal “could mean that world-changing AI tech is developed in the UK, driving discoveries that will deliver growth”.

It already uses OpenAI models in a set of AI-powered tools designed to increase productivity in the civil service, dubbed “Humphrey”.

The Labour government’s eager adoption of AI has previously been criticised by campaigners, such as musicians who oppose its unlicensed use of their music.

Generative AI software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT can produce text, images, videos, and music from prompts by users.

The technology does this based on data from books, photos, film footage, and songs, raising questions about potential copyright infringement or whether data has been used with permission.

The technology has also come under fire for giving false information or bad advice based on prompts.