OpenAI and the UK Government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to deepen collaboration around artificial intelligence. This partnership is said to unlock economic growth and transform public services across the UK.
The agreement was signed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle MP. It outlines joint efforts to drive adoption of advanced AI in both the public and private sectors, expand infrastructure capabilities, and promote technical knowledge sharing.
AI is a core technology for nation building that will transform economies and deliver growth. Britain has a strong legacy of scientific leadership and was among the first to act on the potential of AI. Now it’s time to turn that ambition into real-world impact.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
OpenAI opened its first international office in London last year. It now has over 100 staff in the UK across research, engineering, and commercial roles. The company also confirmed the plans to expand its UK footprint, with more details expected later this summer.
The MoU includes non-binding commitments to explore practical uses of AI across UK public services and industry. This includes deploying large AI models across government departments to streamline civil service tasks and improve citizen services. It will also support small businesses via AI-powered tools that simplify access to regulations and government support.
Furthermore, the partnership will advance the UK’s AI infrastructure in line with priorities outlined in the national action plan, with a focus on sovereign capability. It will also deepen existing collaborations with the UK’s AI Safety Institute, including new technical information-sharing programs and joint research into model capabilities and risks.
AI will be fundamental in driving change across the country—from fixing the NHS to boosting productivity and creating new job opportunities. This partnership brings more of OpenAI’s work to the UK, strengthening our AI ecosystem and ensuring the technology works for us.
UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle MP
The UK government is already testing OpenAI’s capabilities in live applications. A chatbot built using OpenAI’s API helps thousands of small businesses navigate business regulations on GOV.UK. Apart from that, ‘Humphrey’, which is a Whitehall AI assistant powered by OpenAI, speeds up administrative work for civil servants. Another tool called ‘Consult’ automatically organizes public responses to policy consultations, completing in minutes tasks that used to take officials weeks.
However, it’s not only the UK government that is working on AI. Recently, it was reported that a group of researchers from Switzerland is developing the world’s most open large language models (LLMs). It is led by ETH Zurich, EPFL, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, and is built to compete with big commercial AI models. But it promises transparency and multilingual support on a level not seen before.
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