The Foundation Model Taskforce was first announced earlier this year, with the UK Government backing it with an initial £100 million to build sovereign capabilities in foundation models — the tech underpinning generative artificial intelligence — as well as helping guide AI safety, research, and development.

The newly announced chair is the founder of Songkick, the concert directory website, as well as venture capital firm Plural. He has co-authored the State of AI report since 2018, and is also a visiting professor at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

The government has said that, under Hogarth’s leadership, a key focus for the taskforce will be undertaking safety research in the run-up to the global AI safety summit which is set to be hosted by the UK later this year.

Further, the government has said the taskforce will carry out research on AI safety and inform broader work on the development of international guardrails that could be put in place to address the various risks.

On the appointment, Hogarth said: “UK scientists and entrepreneurs have made many important contributions to the field of AI, from Alan Turing through to AlphaFold.

“The Prime Minister has laid out a bold vision for the UK to supercharge the field of AI safety, one that until now has been under-resourced even as AI capabilities have accelerated.

“I’m honoured to have the chance to chair such an important mission in the lead up to the first global summit on AI Safety in the UK.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who Hogarth will be reporting directly to, also commented, saying: “The more artificial intelligence progresses, the greater the opportunities are to grow our economy and deliver better public services.

“But with such potential to transform our future, we owe it to our children and our grandchildren to ensure AI develops safely and responsibly.

“As one of the leading figures in UK tech, it’s great to have Ian leading our expert taskforce, empowered with authority and agility to build our leadership in AI safety and development.

“It will ensure we do things differently and move with the same pace and vigour as we rise to meet the task ahead.”

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Hogarth’s appointment comes during calls for the UK Government to be more responsive to technological advancements — like the recent developments in large language model-powered generative AI — rather than reactive.

Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, alongside ex-Leader of the Opposition William Hague, joined forces last week to release a report titled A New National Purpose: AI Promises a World-Leading Future of Britain.

In the lengthy report, they take aim at the current government’s AI bodies, advocating for better AI advisory as development on artificial intelligence deepens.

“While industry figures have predicted some advances and privately warned of major risks, existing government channels have failed to anticipate the trajectory of progress,” Blair and Hague wrote in the report.

“For example, neither the key advance of transformers nor its application in LLMs were picked up by advisory mechanisms until ChatGPT was headline news.

“Even the most recent AI strategies of the Alan Turing Institute, University of Cambridge and UK government make little to no mention of AGI, LLMs or similar issues.”

One of the report’s co-authors, James Phillips, a previous science and technology advisor at 10 Downing Street, took to Twitter to discuss the report.

He said: “We highlight that existing government advisory channels and systems for AI have failed for AI. Whilst industry figures have warned in private of the rapid pace of change, the government has been blindsided. Existing institutions have not oriented to this agenda effectively.”