Exclusive: Deal that could have cost £2bn was floated at meeting between technology secretary Peter Kyle and Sam Altman

The boss of the firm behind ChatGPT and the UK technology secretary discussed a multibillion-pound deal to give the entire country premium access to the AI tool, the Guardian has learned.

Sam Altman, a co-founder of OpenAI, talked to Peter Kyle about a potential agreement to give UK residents access to its advanced product.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the meeting, the idea was floated as part of a broader discussion in San Francisco about opportunities for collaboration between OpenAI and the UK.

Those close to the discussion say Kyle never really took the idea seriously, not least because it could have cost as much as £2bn. But the talks show the enthusiasm with which the technology secretary has embraced the artificial intelligence sector, despite concerns over the accuracy of some chatbot responses and implications for privacy and copyright.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
    1·
    3 days ago

    Big if there. They were prepared to just hand over 2 billion pounds to a foreign company in the hope that that company eventually comes up with a product that’s actually worth 2 billion pounds. Perhaps a better bet would be to wait and see if they do.

    I agree with you in general that it would be very bad for the public not to have access to a true AGI but I sort of feel like in that scenario all bets are off. Would it even make sense to honour prior agreements, does a agreement made under one economic system make sense under a different economic system?

    Also wouldn’t the best bet me to simply develop our own AI rather than relying on an American company?

    • Noit@feddit.uk
      1·
      3 days ago

      You’re making two competing arguments. One is that AI is going nowhere and the government shouldn’t invest. And another that we are going to the AGI future and we should build it here. If you think 2 billion to OpenAI is expensive then you’ll be shocked by how much it would cost to get enough AI talent to move to the UK and build us something that competes with the top US and Chinese models.

      The government is going to have to make a gamble one way or another and it either costs us a lot of money or risks a huge opportunity. There aren’t any winning options that make everyone happy.