The UK's £165 million National AI Biosecurity Initiative, with Google DeepMind
Where it stands: The UK launched a £165 million National AI Biosecurity Initiative, including £100 million for an AI Biosecurity Lab that Google DeepMind will partner with and support. Watch for the lab's location, leadership and first programmes.
- 2026-10-26 (~7:18 AM ET — x.com/demishassabis): The UK launched a £165 million National AI Biosecurity Initiative (about $220 million), including £100 million (about $135 million) for a world-first AI Biosecurity Lab that Google DeepMind will partner with and support. Kanishka Narayan MP's launch thread announces the initiative — harnessing British scientific expertise and AI "to detect biological threats and protect people from emerging risks," drawing comparison to the UK's AI Security Institute; Google DeepMind's Pushmeet Kohli called the launch one he is delighted to see, and CEO Demis Hassabis reposted, writing that researchers, government, and industry must collectively strengthen biological defences as life sciences enter a transformational era. First AI-biosecurity thread; watch: the formal UK government pages and the initiative's full scope, the lab's remit and staffing, the specifics of DeepMind's partnership role, and whether other governments copy the model.