UK's AI Security Institute Launches Global AI Safety Coalition

The UK's AI Security Institute has launched a £15 million international coalition aimed at enhancing AI safety and alignment. This initiative includes prominent organizations such as the Canadian AI Safety Institute, Amazon, and Anthropic. The primary goal is to fund and accelerate research into AI alignment, ensuring that these systems behave safely and as intended.

The coalition provides substantial resources for UK researchers, offering up to £1 million in grants and £5 million in cloud computing credits for experiments. This support aims to foster innovation while safeguarding economic interests and national security in the UK.

The Alignment Project seeks to make AI systems more predictable and controllable, directly impacting the safety and reliability of technologies used across various sectors in the UK. The initiative also includes venture capital investment, tying AI safety directly to market incentives, suggesting that trustworthiness will become a competitive advantage for startups and businesses within the tech sector.

Prominent figures in the AI community, including Geoffrey Irving, Chief Scientist at the AI Security Institute, and Jack Clark from Anthropic, have emphasized the urgency of addressing AI alignment challenges. The project aims to bring together governments, industry, philanthropists, venture capitalists, and researchers to tackle these issues collaboratively.