UK government and Meta team up on open-source AI

Tahawul Tech

a day ago

Meta has teamed up with a UK government institute in order to develop open-source AI models for public agency use. The social media giant is contributing $1 million to the open-source AI fellowship for a programme administered by the Alan Turing Institute (ATI).
Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta, stated the focus on open-source AI is key for the UK establishing its sovereign AI capacity. The year-long fellowships will use open-source AI models such as Meta's Llama to help the UK government develop its own AI tools without being dependent on closed systems from overseas companies such as OpenAI, Google or Microsoft.
'Open-source AI models are helping researchers and developers make major scientific and medical breakthroughs, and they have the potential to transform the delivery of public services, too', Kaplan wrote. 'We hope these fellows will make a big, positive difference and help show just how valuable open-source AI can be to governments and society more broadly'.
Kaplan stated embedding open-source AI across government departments could help unlock up to £45 billion in productivity gains across the public sector while reducing costs for taxpayers. 'By building open-source tools in areas like national security, public health and planning reform, the fellows will help ensure public money is invested in a way that produces results for the government much more immediately and directly'. He noted the open-source models will be owned by government which means sensitive data is held in-house and not tied to contracts or systems provided by closed AI model companies.
Jean Innes, CEO of the ATI, stated the fellowships 'will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing'.
The fellowships will begin January 2026 with applications slated to open over the coming months.
Source: Mobile World Live
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