AI Security Institute

Statement

We recently launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan to create one of the biggest clusters of AI innovation in the world and deliver a new era of prosperity and wealth creation for our country – harnessing AI to deliver on the Plan for Change.

None of that is possible unless we can mitigate the risks that AI presents. Safeguarding Britain’s national security, a key pillar of the government’s Plan for Change, alongside protecting citizens from crime, will continue to be a driving principle of the UK’s approach to the responsible development of AI. That is why I am renaming our AI Safety Institute as the AI Security Institute.

This change of name better reflects the team's essential remit, and the priorities they have always focussed on. Their work doesn't centre on freedom of speech, or deciding what counts as bias and discrimination.

My department addresses these issues in other places. Through the Fairness Innovation Challenge, we’re supporting the development of socio-technical solutions to bias and discrimination. And through our work on AI assurance, we're making sure we adopt this technology safely and responsibly across the economy.

The team at AISI, though, are focussed on serious AI risks with security implications, like how the technology can be used to develop chemical and biological weapons, be used to carry out cyber-attacks, or enable crimes such as fraud and child sexual abuse.

To achieve this, the Institute will partner across government, including with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (the Ministry of Defence’s science and technology organisation), the Laboratory for AI Security Research (LASR), and the national security community. That includes building on the expertise of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK’s national technical authority for cyber security, including AI.

As part of this update, the Institute will also launch a new criminal misuse team which will work jointly with the Home Office to conduct research on a range of crime and security issues which threaten to harm British citizens.

This work is also rooted in the strength of our partnerships with the companies who are at the frontier of AI development. Working with those companies, the government can conduct scientifically informed tests to understand new AI capabilities and the risks they pose. US companies have led the way in taking security risks seriously, but we need to scrutinise all models regardless of their jurisdiction of origin. This is why the Security Institute will take a leading role in testing AI models wherever they come from, open or closed. This ground-breaking scientific research will be shared with our allies – demonstrating the UK’s commitment to our shared security.

The UK is alive to the security risks of today, but also aware of the risks of tomorrow. The 2025 International AI Safety Report, led by Yoshua Bengio, warns us that – without the checks and balances of people directing them – we must consider the possibility that risks won’t just come from malicious actors misusing AI models, but from the models themselves. We do not yet know the full extent of these risks, but as we deploy AI across our economy, our society, and the critical infrastructure that keeps our nation secure, we cannot afford to ignore them. The Security Institute will be critical to this mission.

Governments are not passive bystanders in the AI revolution. We have agency in how AI shapes our society. The UK Government has a responsibility to use that agency to defend our democratic way of life. Only countries with a deep and knowing understanding of this technology will be able to build the capacity they need to deliver for their citizens in the twenty-first century. This depends on the democratic world rallying together to maintain our leadership in AI and protect our fundamental values – freedom, openness, and opportunity. This won’t just keep our people safe, it will ensure that they are the first to benefit from the new era of wealth and prosperity which AI will bring.