By Paul Sandle
LONDON (Reuters) -OpenAI will offer Britain’s government and businesses an opportunity to store data in the UK from Friday, helping unlock the potential of AI for more companies and public services, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy will announce on Thursday.
The plan, secured through OpenAI’s partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), will enhance privacy and security as well as reinforcing resilience to cyber threats, the government said.
Led by Sam Altman, OpenAI upended the tech industry with the launch of ChatGPT, its AI chatbot in late 2022.
It signed a partnership with the British government in July to work together to use AI to improve public services.
Lammy, who will announce the sovereign capability at the OpenAI Frontiers event, said AI was already improving efficiency in the MoJ.
More than 1,000 probation officers would be equipped with Justice Transcribe, an AI tool that records and transcribes conversations with offenders, saving hours spent transferring notes into digital systems, he said.
“By adopting AI, we’re cutting the burdensome admin and ensuring frontline staff can spend more of their time doing the things only humans can do – monitoring offenders and protecting the British public,” he said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the number of people using its products in the UK had increased fourfold in the past year.
“It’s exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done,” he said.
UK data residency will be an option for customers using API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise and ChatGPT Edu.
OpenAI’s Matt Weaver, head of EMEA solutions engineers, said pilot projects in the MoJ had sparked interest from other departments.
“We expect adoption to accelerate now we’ve got the first deployment taking place,” he said in an interview.
ChatGPT, which competes with Anthropic, Perplexity and others as well as big tech companies like Google and Microsoft, on Tuesday announced ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser built around its popular chatbot.
Its arrival could accelerate a shift to AI-driven search as users seek tailored information rather than keyword-based results.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by William James)
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