OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, agreed to use artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity within the UK public services, the government announced.
The deal reached by the company and the science ministry could provide OpenAI access to government information as well as witness its software application being adopted in education, defence, security, and the justice system.
Technology Minister Peter Kyle stated that “AI will be central to shaping change” in the UK and “shaping economic growth”. However, digital rights activists claimed the deal demonstrated “this government’s gullible attitude towards the increasingly shady sales patter of big tech”.
The deal states the UK and OpenAI can create an “information sharing program” and will “build safeguards that safeguard the public and defend democratic values”.
It also states they will look at investing in AI hardware, which typically means constructing or enlarging data centres – huge pools of computer servers that drive AI. And OpenAI will double the size of its London office, which it claims already has over 100 staff working there.
The pledge is a letter of intent, not a legally binding agreement, which lays out the ambitions of a partnership between the UK government and OpenAI. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman described the plan as one that “will deliver prosperity for all”.
The partnership could release “highly skilled public servants to concentrate on the challenging one-in-a-million problems that AI may be less able to solve,” said Dr Gordon Fletcher, associate dean for research and innovation at the University of Salford.
But he indicated the test would be whether it could “really be done transparently and ethically, with minimal data drawn from the public”. Digital rights campaign organisation Foxglove described the deal as “hopelessly vague”.
Co-executive Director Martha Dark said the “treasure trove of public data” the government possesses “would be of enormous commercial value to OpenAI in assisting to train the next version of ChatGPT”.
“Peter Kyle appears strangely intent on installing the big tech fox in charge of the henhouse regarding UK sovereignty,” she said. Peter Kyle had dinner with Sam Altman in March and April this year, government transparency data published recently shows.
During a recent podcast interview with ex-Dowings Street adviser Jimmy McLoughlin, Kyle explained he has to contend with “global companies which are innovating on a scale the British state cannot match”.
The agreement arrives at a time when the UK government is seeking means to turn around the stagnant economy of the UK, which is predicted to have expanded by 0.1% to 0.2% during the April to June quarter.
Last month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed an “AI Opportunities Action Plan” aimed at increasing growth, with the support of most top tech firms.
Tim Flagg, chief operating officer at UKAI – a trade association for British AI companies – at the time said the plans had a “narrow view” of players in the sector and are too concentrated on large tech.
The UK government has made it clear that it is receptive to US AI investment, having already agreed such deals with OpenAI rivals Google and Anthropic this year.
It described its OpenAI agreement “could mean that world-changing AI tech is developed in the UK, driving discoveries that will deliver growth. It already employs OpenAI models in an array of AI-powered tools aimed at boosting productivity in the civil service, known as “Humphrey”.
The Labour government’s willing embrace of AI has in the past been condemned by campaigners, including musicians who are against its unlicensed use of their work. Generative AI programmes such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT can generate text, images, video, and music from user prompts.
It does so from information gathered from books, photographs, film clips, and songs, and questions have been raised about possible copyright breaches or whether information has been used with permission. It has also been criticised for providing false information or poor advice, depending on the prompt.
