UK govt signs MOU with Anthropic as digital ID, AI become economic issues

Following its announcement of a “Plan for Change” with AI technologies and digital identity as  key drivers, the UK government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. firm Anthropic on collaborating to explore the potential of AI tools to improve access to online services for citizens.

A release from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) says the stated goal is to “foster the continued responsible development and deployment of AI that aligns with our societal values and principles of shared economic prosperity, improved public services and increased personal opportunity.”

Anthropic PBC is a U.S. firm that positions itself as an “AI safety and research company,” which explores how to deploy safe, reliable AI models for the public. A PBC (public benefit company) is one whose business operations aim to address social, economic, and/or environmental needs.

Founded in 2021 by former employees of Open AI, Anthropic enjoys a research partnership with the AI Security Institute (AISI) and investment backing in the billions from Amazon and Google. Its family of large language models (LLM), named “Claude,” competes with Open AI’s ChatGPT. But according to Anthropic’s Wikipedia entry, Claude sets safety guidelines for its output using “Constitutional AI” – a framework designed to ensure AI remains “helpful, harmless and honest.”

Choosing Anthropic is a signal that the government’s AI and digital ID plan will factor in public concern about AI and prioritize privacy and trust as core principles. The release notes that the DSIT and Anthropic intend to continue building their partnership in order to secure the AI supply chain for d the UK’s future infrastructure and support an “innovation economy.” The idea is to leverage Anthropic’s toolkit to support startups, academics and other researchers.

Per the release, Anthropic’s Economic Index “provides unique real-world AI model usage data to inform empirical insights into the integration of AI into the modern economy, inform future UK AI innovation, and ensure UK citizens can thrive in the AI-enabled economy.”

Yoti, iProov argue for economic upside of digital identity

The move is a concrete indication that UK prime minister Keir Starmer intends to act on his plans for “national renewal” in which AI and digital transformation drive economic growth and boost living standards.

Starmer’s push for UK digital leadership is only likely to be strengthened by a realigned global order in which transatlantic alliances are weakened by a new strain of American insularity. And he has the support of both policymakers and the private sector.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change believes that, “under a plausible albeit rapid AI-uptake scenario, AI-enabled growth could generate sufficient tax revenues (up to £40 billion per year within a decade and £100 billion by 2040) to offset all the extra fiscal pressure facing the UK up to 2040.”

Industry likewise sees the economic upside to digital identity, which is linked to online safety measures such as age assurance, as well as a multitude of use cases for digital identity verification.

Last year, Yoti CEO Robin Tombs published an open letter to UK Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle, citing Home Office sandbox trials from 2022 that showed 7 in 10 shoppers preferring digital age verification at self-checkouts.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has also collaborated with iProov on commentary that looks at AI’s role in enhancing digital identity systems. Among the arguments it makes is the little-noted role digital identity plays in making algorithms trained on biometric data more usable. “Digital ID can enhance the quality of data fed into AI systems, ensuring more reliable and accurate AI outputs across all contexts. By mitigating the risk of ‘garbage in, garbage out’, digital ID acts as an enabler of more trusted and reliable data.”

Article Topics

AI  |  Anthropic  |  Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT)  |  digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  government services  |  iProov  |  responsible AI  |  Tony Blair Institute  |  UK  |  Yoti