Who's who · AI security & safety
AI Security Institute
UK government research body that tests advanced AI models for security risks
At a glance
- Founded
- November 2023
- Based in
- London, United Kingdom
- People
- Ian Hogarth, Chair; Henry de Zoete, Director; Jade Leung, Chief technology officer; Chris Summerfield, Research director
- Known for
- Inspect, Pre-deployment testing, Frontier AI Trends Report
- Funding
- Government-funded; £66 million per financial year
- Parent
- Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Technical staff
- 100+
- Former name
- AI Safety Institute (until February 2025)
- Website
- https://www.aisi.gov.uk
The AI Security Institute (AISI) is a research organisation inside the UK government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. It tests advanced AI systems, advises policymakers on emerging capabilities and risks, and gives grants for outside research. It describes itself as designed "like a startup in the government".
It grew out of the Frontier AI Taskforce and launched as the AI Safety Institute on 2 November 2023, during the Bletchley Park summit, billed as the world's first such body. In February 2025 it was renamed the AI Security Institute, with a sharper focus on serious security and crime risks such as cyberattacks and chemical or biological weapons.
AISI has more than 100 technical staff, funding of £66 million per financial year and access to over £1.5 billion of compute. It publishes Inspect, an open-source framework for running evaluations (structured tests of what a model can do), and the Frontier AI Trends Report. It also runs joint assessments with partners, including a July 2026 study of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 with the US government's evaluation centre at NIST.
Sources
- AI Security Institute, About, 2026-10-02
- GOV.UK, Prime Minister launches new AI Safety Institute, 2023-11-02
- GOV.UK, Tackling AI security risks to unleash growth and deliver Plan for Change, 2025-02-14
- NIST, UK AISI / CAISI Preliminary Assessment of Kimi K3's Cyber Capabilities, 2026-07-23
Facts last checked 2026-10-02