Testing AI models: UK adds £120 million to its AI Security Institute, when its US counterpart lives on $10 to $15 million

The British envelope of about $160 million far exceeds the annual budget of the American CAISI, which has no permanent director since July 2025.

The UK government is proposing to inject an additional £120 million (about $160 million) into its AI Security Institute, the agency responsible for evaluating the most advanced AI models before and after their release. The same package includes £60 million for a sovereign AI fund, £18 million for chip design and £10 million per year for employment research and AI.

The contrast with the United States is striking: CAISI, the equivalent body housed within NIST, operates with $10 million to $15 million per year, even though the Trump administration has requested $27 million for the 2027 fiscal year. The two structures were born in 2023, but the British institute now has more than a hundred people, including former OpenAI, DeepMind and British intelligence staff, while its American counterpart no longer has a titular director since the resignation of Chris Fall in July 2025.