The UK’s AI Safety Institute has become the ‘AI Security Institute’, a rebranding which signifies a foundational change to the guiding principles of the country’s approach to the development of artificial intelligence.

According to the UK Government, the new name will reflect the Institute’s shift in focus toward serious AI risks with security implications, such as how the technology might be used for the creation of chemical and biological weapons, for sophisticated cyber-attacks, or to enable crimes such as fraud.

The ‘revitalised’ Institute will be bolstered by a new criminal misuse team, partnering with the Home Office, to research a range of crime and security issues which could harm UK citizens, and will also partner across government, including with the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to assess the risks posed by frontier AI. 

Announcing the change, the government said that the new direction of the AI Institute reflects  key pillars of Labour’s much heralded Plan for Change, namely the safeguarding of Britain’s national security and the protection of its citizens from crime.

“The Institute’s focus from the start has been on security and we’ve built a team of scientists focused on evaluating serious risks to the public,” said Ian Hogarth, chair of the AI Security Institute.

“Our new criminal misuse team and deepening partnership with the national security community mark the next stage of tackling those risks.”

One area of focus the government highlighted was the the use of AI to make child sexual abuse images, with the refreshed Institute set to explore methods to prevent abusers from harnessing emerging tech to carry out such crimes, supporting work announced earlier this month to make it illegal to own AI tools optimised to make images of child sexual abuse. 

However, this new direction means the government’s foremost AI body will not take on other pressing issues surrounding the development of responsible AI.

It will no longer focus on research around bias within AI models or freedom of speech concerns, which until now have been core parts of the Institutes mission to to develop systemic AI safety, with the UK one of the flag bearers for responsible and ethical AI development. 

Instead, the AI Institute will now look to ‘advance our understanding of the most serious risks posed by the technology’ in order to build a scientific basis of evidence that can help policymakers ensure national security and the rule of law remain central to the next wave of the technology.

That work will include testing advanced AI systems to determine how it might be misused, fostering collaboration across government, industry and academia, as well as championing stronger AI security development practices and policy globally. 

To achieve this, the Institute will work alongside wider government, including the Laboratory for AI Security Research, and organisations within the national security community, such as the National Cyber Security Centre, to broaden its expertise.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference just days after the conclusion of the AI Action Summit in Paris, the secretary of state for science and technology, Peter Kyle, said: “The work of the AI Security Institute won’t change, but this renewed focus will ensure our citizens – and those of our allies – are protected from those who would look to use AI against our institutions, democratic values, and way of life.

“The main job of any government is ensuring its citizens are safe and protected, and I’m confident the expertise our Institute will be able to bring to bear will ensure the UK is in a stronger position than ever to tackle the threat of those who would look to use this technology against us.”

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The UK Government’s move mirrors a shift already observed in the US, often considered the global leader in AI technology.

In one of his first official acts, the newly installed President, Donald Trump, revoked a 2023 executive order signed by President Biden that aimed to reduce the risk of potential harms around AI development that could impact consumers and workers, as well as national security.

More recently, Trump called the release of Chinese-linked AI DeepSeek, which has taken the world by storm, a ‘wake up call’ for the US tech industry, saying that American AI firms should be ‘lasered focused on competing to win’, a dramatic move away from the previous administrations more cautious approach, and one which might take the world with it.