Britain’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has signed a memorandum of understanding with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, laying out a “strategic partnership” intended to deepen joint research on AI safety and assess investments in UK computing infrastructure such as new data centres. The agreement also commits the two sides to identify where advanced models can be deployed across government services, including in justice, defence, security and education. The Labour government has separately pledged £1 billion to expand the nation’s AI-ready computing capacity, with a goal of increasing public compute resources twenty-fold within five years. Officials say widespread adoption of the technology could lift UK productivity by 1.5 % a year—worth an estimated £47 billion over a decade—while OpenAI signalled it may enlarge its existing London office to support the work. The deal is part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, which seeks to position Britain alongside the United States, China and India in the race to commercialise the technology. It follows a similar collaboration announced earlier this month with Google DeepMind and comes as regulators weigh the competitive and security implications of closer ties between government and leading AI developers.