The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has revealed plans for a new programme of work with Facebook owner Meta and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic that aims to modernise government services.
Meta is funding a new cohort of “AI fellows” for government to the tune of US$1m (around £726,000 at current exchange rates) as part of a tie-up with the Alan Turing Institute.
DSIT said the AI fellows will spend the next year developing open‑source tools that tackle some of the biggest challenges facing public services.
The department said that the fellows will be deployed to support national security and defence teams to make vital decisions at the same time as safeguarding sensitive data through the development of “cutting-edge AI solutions” that run offline or within secured networks.
Their work will also look to deliver transport improvements by utilising AI to develop models that analyse images and videos that will allow councils to prioritise infrastructure repairs more effectively.
Additional areas of work will involve healthcare and policing.
Meanwhile, a new partnership with Anthropic, famed for its “Claude” series of large language models, will help to build and pilot a dedicated assistant tool for public services.
DSIT said the AI assistant would “support people through crucial life moments”, in an effort to ensure that emerging technologies go further and faster to help people at all stages of their life.
The department said the assistant tool would be part of a cutting-edge plan to use AI agents for national government services, and would start with an offer for job-seekers, providing “custom career advice and help to lock down a job”. It said the technology would be “entirely optional”, with a pilot expected to begin later this year.
Ian Murray, who is minister for data and modern digital government, said the initiatives were vital for ensuring that services keep pace with technological advancement.
“A digital world needs a modern, digital government,” he said. “That is why we are enlisting the homegrown talent we already have to elevate our public services.
“Having met the fellows, I know they will play a pivotal role in rewiring our healthcare, police, transport systems and more, to make sure hardworking people benefit from the opportunities that only technologies like AI can deliver.”
Rob Sherman, a vice-president at Meta, said: “By placing AI experts at the heart of government institutions, we’re accelerating meaningful change and ensuring these benefits reach everyone.”
Pip White, head of UK, Ireland and Northern Europe at Anthropic, said the firm’s partnership with the government would demonstrate how frontier AI “can be deployed safely for the public benefit, setting the standard for how governments integrate AI into the services their citizens depend on”.
Prof Mark Girolami, acting chief executive and chief scientist at the Alan Turing Institute, said the government’s new AI fellows would “play an important role” in putting effective AI tools into the hands of public servants.
The programme includes the University of Surrey’s Dr Armin Mustafa, an expert in computer vision and AI‑driven modelling; Angus Williams, senior data scientist at the Alan Turing Institute; Dr Shan Luo, associate professor of computer vision at King’s College London; Dr Frank Soboczenski, assistant professor in AI at the University of York; and Dr Mingfei Sun, assistant professor in computer science at the University of Manchester.