OpenAI and Microsoft have pledged additional funding to the Alignment Project led by the United Kingdom’s AI Security Institute, bolstering an international effort to advance research aimed at ensuring artificial intelligence systems behave as intended as they become more capable and widely deployed.
The announcement, made by U.K. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan at the AI Impact Summit in India, increases the Alignment Project’s research fund to more than $36.3 million and coincides with the first round of grants awarded to 60 AI projects across eight countries, the U.K. government said Thursday. A second funding round is expected to open this summer.
The announcement follows a series of U.K.-led initiatives aimed at shaping global AI governance and security standards. Recent efforts include a U.K.-Microsoft partnership to develop a deepfake detection evaluation framework and Red Hat’s enterprise agreement with the U.K. Ministry of Defence to support hybrid cloud and AI adoption across defense operations.
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What Is the Alignment Project?
The Alignment Project seeks to avoid unintentional or harmful behavior resulting from the use of AI systems and build trustworthy, controllable AI technologies as their capabilities grow. The initiative combines grant funding, access to computing resources and ongoing mentorship from AISI’s leading researchers.
OpenAI contributed $7.5 million to the fund, with support from Microsoft and other international partners. The U.K. government expects the project to enable the accelerated adoption of systems that improve productivity, enhance medical diagnostics and create new job opportunities.
“We’ve built strong safety foundations which have put us in a position where we can start to realise the benefits of this technology,” Lammy said. He added that backing from OpenAI and Microsoft would be “invaluable” to advancing the effort.
AI Minister Narayan described public trust as a key barrier to AI adoption. “With fresh backing from OpenAI and Microsoft, we’re supporting work that’s crucial to ensuring AI delivers its huge benefits safely, confidently and for everyone,” Narayan said.
Which Organizations Are Supporting the Alignment Project?
The Alignment Project is backed by an international coalition of government and industry partners, including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Australian AI Safety Institute, Schmidt Sciences, Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, and several philanthropic and venture organizations.