The British government has signed an agreement with a major AI provider that has been heavily back by Amazon – namely Anthropic.

The UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and Anthropic jointly announced they had signed a signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to “explore how they can bring the transformative potential of advanced AI technologies to enhance public services for UK citizens.”

Anthropic was co-founded by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, and last September the UK competition regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), had cleared Amazon’s earlier $4bn investment into the start-up, saying the deal did not meet its threshold for a more in-depth review.

Memorandum of Understanding

Both Anthropic and the UK government noted that artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionise how governments operate, drive widespread economic transformation, and touch almost all aspects of society.

“Both Anthropic and the UK government recognise this defining opportunity,” they stated. “Our shared intention is to work together on the most consequential opportunities presented by advanced AI: to foster the continued responsible development and deployment of AI that aligns with our societal values and principles of shared economic prosperity, improved public services and increased personal opportunity.”

To this end, both parties are collaborating to explore the potential of advanced AI tools in improving how UK citizens access government information and services online. The aim here will be to advance best practices for the responsible deployment of frontier AI capabilities by the public sector, while fostering close co-operation between government and leading AI innovators.

Both also aim to enhance citizen experiences through the application of AI technologies, by improving responsiveness to public needs, as well as ensuring privacy and building trust.

Claude AI

In addition DSIT and Anthropic, through Anthropic’s partnership with AI Security Institute (formerly the AI Safety Institute), will continue their research collaboration to understand the capabilities and security risks of AI systems, and work together to mitigate these risks to enable the significant AI opportunities.

Anthropic said the collaboration will focus on the potential for it’s AI model, Claude, to enhance how people in the UK access and interact with government information and services online. It will also establish best practices for the responsible deployment of frontier AI capabilities in the public sector.

And both of them will help support AI innovation and economic development in the UK, by co-operating on the following:

• Advancing scientific progress with AI, combining Anthropic’s capabilities with existing UK strengths in R&D and data;
• Securing the supply chain for advanced AI and the UK’s future infrastructure;
• Boosting the innovation economy with Anthropic’s AI systems and tools, supporting the UK’s startup community as well as universities and other organisations.

Anthropic pointed out that it is already working with other government agencies around the world including the District of Columbia Department of Health in the US; the European Parliament; Palantir; and Swindon Borough Council in the UK.