UK allocates £130 million to AI-powered cyber defenses
Original title: Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create
The cyber money sits inside a wider £600 million-plus AI package covering biosecurity, AISI and British AI firms.
The UK Treasury announced more than £600 million in AI spending ahead of the Budget, including £130 million for cyber defense. £60 million will fund a National Cyber Shield using agentic AI, a £25 million challenge fund and a sandbox for autonomous tools. Another £70 million will create the NERV Centre to find vulnerabilities across infrastructure and the economy. The package also funds AISI, a biosecurity lab and initiative, sovereign AI investment and chip-design training. When the agents may act without humans is not stated.
Unconfirmed: It remains unclear how independently the AI defenders may act or when they will be deployed.
- AISI receives another £120 million to test advanced AI systems.
- A National AI Biosecurity Initiative is funded with £165 million.
- OpenAI and Anthropic are each offering up to £100 million in support.
- Narayan said AI found 500 previously unknown public-sector flaws.
- Manchester will host an NCSC AI Cyber Security Centre of Excellence.
From the original article
3 min read at theregister.comWhitehall wants agents guarding critical infrastructure as part of a wider £600M spending spree
By Carly Page · theregister.com
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