{"id":383758,"date":"2026-04-17T06:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383758\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:03:08","slug":"liz-kendall-urges-uk-public-to-embrace-ai-as-government-makes-first-500m-fund-investment-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383758\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Kendall urges UK public to embrace AI as government makes first \u00a3500m fund investment | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The UK technology secretary has urged the country to \u201cmake AI work for Britain\u201d, brushing off fears about its impact on jobs and cybersecurity as the government announced its first investment under a \u00a3500m sovereign AI fund.<\/p>\n<p>Liz Kendall said the UK had to \u201cseize\u201d the opportunity offered by AI despite concerns underlined this month when US startup Anthropic revealed it had developed an AI model that posed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/apr\/08\/anthropic-ai-cybersecurity-software\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">potentially significant cyber threat<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Asked how the government makes the case for embracing a technology that could disrupt jobs and now cybersecurity, Kendall said: \u201cWe have to seize this to make it work, for Britain, for our jobs, for solving the biggest challenges we face as a world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Speaking on Thursday as the government unveiled its first investment in a UK company as part of a \u00a3500m sovereign AI fund, Kendall acknowledged \u201cpeople are worried about the risks and what it means for their jobs\u201d, but AI entrepreneurs also believed they can \u201cmake it work \u2026 they can create jobs\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In January <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jan\/28\/artificial-intelligence-will-cost-jobs-admits-liz-kendall\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kendall admitted<\/a> \u201csome jobs will go\u201d as AI automates certain tasks and roles, but it would also create new employment opportunities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The government announced on Thursday it had taken an undisclosed shareholding in London-based Callosum, a company that helps different types of computer chips work together efficiently to train and operate AI models. It has also taken a stake in an as-yet-unnamed second business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Six UK companies will also receive access to a network of government-funded supercomputers to help them develop AI models in exchange for \u201ca right of first refusal\u201d to invest in some of those firms. The value of that supercomputer access counts towards the \u00a3500m fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The startups using that extra compute capacity include Prima Mente, which is building \u201cbiological foundation models\u201d to tackle diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s; Cursive, a company developing autonomous AI agents founded by Google DeepMind alumni; and Odyssey, which develops \u2018world models\u2019, an approach to AI where systems interact with a convincing simulation of the real world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said that by supporting national AI champions, the UK could ensure that internationally competitive companies can \u201cstart, scale and stay here in Britain\u201d. The sovereign AI unit, designed to act like a venture capital fund, was launched officially on Thursday at the London offices of Wayve, a self-driving car startup now worth $8.6bn (\u00a36.4bn).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Danyal Akarca, co-founder of Callosum, said the UK was the \u201cnatural place\u201d to build his company due to its strong university talent and private AI labs like DeepMind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK technology secretary has urged the country to \u201cmake AI work for Britain\u201d, brushing off fears about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-383758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}