The UK is leading a £27-million global push to make sure AI doesn’t go rogue – and OpenAI and Microsoft just signed on
The UK has secured major backing from two of the world’s leading AI players, OpenAI and Microsoft, in a push to ensure the technology remains safe, controllable, and beneficial.
Announced on Friday (19 February) at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the move sees the tech giants pledge new funding to the AI Security Institute’s (AISI) Alignment Project.
AISI is an ambitious international initiative aimed at solving one of the biggest challenges in frontier AI: making sure powerful systems do exactly what humans intend, without veering into unintended or harmful behaviour.
The Alignment Project, spearheaded by the UK’s AI Security Institute, now has over £27 million available to fuel independent research worldwide.
This includes a substantial £5.6 million contribution from OpenAI, plus additional support from Microsoft and other partners. The fund is already backing around 60 research projects across eight countries, with a second round of grants set to open this summer.
Alignment research focuses on technical methods to keep AI systems reliable and aligned with human values as they grow more capable and autonomous, addressing risks from misaligned goals, loss of control, or unpredictable outputs in complex real-world settings.
“AI offers us huge opportunities, but we will always be clear-eyed on the need to ensure safety is baked into it from the outset. We’ve built strong safety foundations which have put us in a position where we can start to realise the benefits of this technology. The support of OpenAI and Microsoft will be invaluable in continuing to progress this effort,” said UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy.
Mia Glaese, VP of Research at OpenAI, said it was important that AI models are aligned.
“As AI systems become more capable and more autonomous, alignment has to keep pace. The hardest problems won’t be solved by any one organisation working in isolation; we need independent teams testing different assumptions and approaches.
“Our support for the UK AI Security Institute’s Alignment Project complements our internal alignment work and helps strengthen a broader research ecosystem focused on keeping advanced systems reliable and controllable as they’re deployed in more open-ended settings.”
