Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence to design or develop biological agents that could pose a risk to public health.

The UK Biological Security Strategy sets out the vision that, by 2030, the UK is resilient to a spectrum of biological risks and a world leader in responsible innovation. This vision seeks to harness the transformative role that artificial intelligence will play across the life sciences whilst recognising the dual-use risk that such frontier technologies can pose.

That is why earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence announced an investment of £115 million to raise the UK’s defences against the threats from AI, including using AI to improve our biological security and mitigate risks posed by autonomous AI agents. This is alongside investment of over £1.83 billion to establish a Network of National Biosecurity Centres, including £1 billion in Weybridge, £580 million in Dstl Porton Down, and £250 million over this Parliament in Harwell to bolster defences against biological incidents, accidents and attacks.

Through the AI Security Institute, HMG works proactively with frontier laboratories to test the capability of models and advise them on where safeguards can, and should, be strengthened to prevent risks emerging.