{"id":350885,"date":"2026-03-21T13:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350885\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T13:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:47:07","slug":"uk-government-yet-to-trial-openai-tech-months-after-signing-partnership-technology-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350885\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government yet to trial OpenAI tech months after signing partnership | Technology policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI, the tech firm behind ChatGPT<\/a>, the partnership was hailed as one that could harness artificial intelligence to \u201caddress society\u2019s greatest challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

But eight months on from the fanfare of that announcement, the government has yet to hold any trials involving the firm\u2019s tech.<\/p>\n

A freedom of information (FoI) request asked the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) for information about trials conducted under the memorandum, which said the company would work with civil servants to \u201cidentify opportunities for how advanced AI models can be deployed throughout government and the private sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

The department replied that it held none of this information and had \u201cnot undertaken any trials under the memorandum of understanding with OpenAI\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to a query from the Guardian, DSIT pointed to an agreement under which the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last October enabled civil servants to use ChatGPT<\/a> \u201cwith an option for UK-based data storage for customers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tarek Nseir, the CEO of Valliance, the AI consultancy that filed the FoI, said: \u201cEither there\u2019s been a huge failure in execution, or it was a failure of intent in my view.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are unquestionably pockets of government that are engaging with these frontier models and these providers \u2026 We just have so little to show for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cRolling out ChatGPT in a department hardly reflects the ambition of the MoU.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe use PowerPoint \u2013 that doesn\u2019t mean we have a strategic relationship with Microsoft. If this was the intent of the MoU then our government is not taking the impact of AI on our economy seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement for the MoJ to use ChatGPT appeared to be part of a larger \u201cAI Action Plan for Justice<\/a>\u201d rolled out separately last July. DSIT also pointed to continuing work with the UK AI Safety Institute to test AI models and develop safeguards in collaboration with OpenAI.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cWe are pleased with the progress we are making on the memorandum of understanding with OpenAI. This work is active, ongoing and focused on delivering real results for public services and the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The department also pointed to work with Nvidia<\/a> and Nscale to \u201cdeploy GPUs for Stargate UK, focusing on strengthening the UK\u2019s AI capabilities\u201d.<\/p>\n

None of this \u2013 apart from ChatGPT in the MoJ \u2013 appeared to amount to deploying advanced AI models throughout the government as was described.<\/p>\n

OpenAI said the scope of the FoI did not capture the full scale of its activities in the UK and that it was \u201cproud of the progress we have made on our MOU with the UK government\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Guardian investigation found that, though Nscale promised to build the UK\u2019s largest supercomputer by the end of 2026, deploying Nvidia\u2019s GPUs, it will almost certainly not complete the project on time \u2013 and has publicly misrepresented its progress on the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nscale is also to collaborate with OpenAI on Stargate UK, an initiative to potentially deploy 8,000 Nvidia chips to sites across the UK \u2013 although the precise language of the press release was noncommittal.<\/p>\n

Contacted by the Guardian, OpenAI said it had \u201cnothing to share\u201d on the progress of this deployment, which it had previously suggested would take place this quarter.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s memorandum with OpenAI was one of a series of high-profile agreements in which it outlined how AI could change \u201chow people live, learn, work, and access public services\u201d, and \u201cbe a powerful tool to drive productivity, accelerate discovery, and create opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Matt Davies, the economic and social policy lead at the Ada Lovelace Institute, said: \u201cAI could transform how people interact with public services, but government experimentation with these technologies must be open and transparent. Voluntary partnerships with big AI companies don\u2019t follow the usual procurement rules, raising real questions about accountability and scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memorandum with OpenAI doesn\u2019t clearly explain how progress will be measured or how it will deliver public benefit, and the risks of \u2018lock-in\u2019 \u2013 becoming dependent on a company\u2019s product and services \u2013 aren\u2019t addressed anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public are worried about the government\u2019s approach to AI. In our polling, 84% said they are concerned about the government putting the sector\u2019s interests ahead of protecting the public. The government needs a positive vision for how AI can genuinely improve people\u2019s lives; just aiming at \u2018more AI\u2019 isn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government has also concluded similar agreements with Anthropic<\/a>, Google DeepMind<\/a> and Nvidia<\/a>. The Guardian understands the Google memorandum, concluded in December, is in the early stages of planning.<\/p>\n

Anthropic said it was planning to build an AI assistant to help navigate government services, and was also working with the UK AI Safety Institute to conduct safety research.<\/p>\n

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI, the tech firm behind ChatGPT, the partnership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,343,344,85,46,125],"class_list":["post-350885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}