OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman informally proposed a deal worth about £2 billion that would have given every resident of the United Kingdom a subscription to ChatGPT Plus, according to people briefed on the discussion. Altman raised the idea during meetings in San Francisco with UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle earlier this year, the sources said. Government officials did not pursue the proposal, viewing the cost as prohibitive, but the talks underscore the Labour administration’s push to position Britain as a leading test bed for artificial-intelligence applications. In July, Kyle’s department signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with OpenAI aimed at exploring the use of the company’s software across UK public services, including education, defence and justice. The UK is already one of OpenAI’s five largest markets for paid ChatGPT subscriptions. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company and the government share a goal of ‘democratising access to AI,’ though no further negotiations on nationwide ChatGPT Plus access are currently under way.