OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has celebrated the UK as “pivotal” in the development of artificial intelligence as the Microsoft-backed firm shares data on Britain’s use of ChatGPT. 

The San Francisco giant revealed that the UK was in the top three countries for developers building through OpenAI’s technology, as well as for users paying for business and personal ChatGPT subscriptions. 

“The UK has played a pivotal role in the development of AI and is now a world leader in its adoption,” said Altman. 

“Millions across the UK are experiencing how AI can improve how they live, work and learn, whilst businesses of all sizes are boosting productivity, creativity and competitiveness at scale.” 

Before launching OpenAI, Altman run Y Combinator, a startup accelerator co-founded by British programmer Paul Graham.

According to the company, ChatGPT has over 300 million weekly active users, one million paying business customers and three million developers using OpenAI technology to build new products. 

“As AI capabilities advance, we expect even more people, businesses and start-ups in the UK to benefit from this transformative technology.” 

Among the British developers building services based on OpenAI’s foundational models is clinic management software group Tortus, which raised £3.3m last February, and AI code-writing startup Cosine, which raised £1.9m last August. 

Another group launching AI products based on the Californian group’s tech is the UK government, which is trialling a chatbot to provide support and business advice based on the information on GOV.UK. The chatbot was built using OpenAI’s GPT-4o model. 

The chatbot was announced as part of the government’s push to encourage AI development as a source of economic growth. 

The Technology Department announced on Tuesday that £85m would be made available to UK companies developing AI-powered drug discovery technology to find new cancer treatments. 

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