Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, how sovereign artificial intelligence and quantum computing capabilities are being ring-fenced for national security applications.

The AI Research Resource (AIRR) is the UK’s national AI computing infrastructure. We are dedicating AIRR capacity to AI R&D aligned with government priorities and providing dedicated access to core Government AI functions, including the AI Security Institute and Sovereign AI. This supports the AI Security Institute’s work to understand and address security risks from advanced AI.

We are also investing in next-generation public compute infrastructure to strengthen the UK’s sovereign compute capability and provide a flexible platform for advanced AI workloads and emerging technologies, including novel AI architectures and quantum computing in the future.

The National Quantum Computing Centre and UKRI work closely with stakeholders across government to ensure our quantum computing deployments are designed to support national priorities, including national security. This will continue with the ProQure programme which is designed to accelerate development of quantum computing capability and help create the evidence base needed for future deployment of large-scale quantum computing systems in the UK. ProQure will also include investment in sovereign capability through supply chain investment.