Key facts
- UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the UN Security Council that governments must work together on AI safety, transparency, and resilience.
- Miliband stated that AI founders fear the technology's potential for harm and believe it cannot be left to them alone to prevent disaster.
- The UK has established the first AI Security Institute to test leading AI systems before public release.
- A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warns that Big Tech's market power is stifling competition in the UK and could lead to AI monopolization.
- 79% of UK businesses surveyed are concerned about Big Tech using its dominance to limit competition.
- Google handles over 90% of UK internet searches, while Microsoft and AWS each control 30-40% of cloud services spending.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has called for a global approach to regulating artificial intelligence, emphasizing that governments must take the lead rather than leaving critical decisions to corporations. Speaking at the UN Security Council on September 23, 2026, Miliband highlighted the warnings from AI founders about the technology's potential for harm and stressed the need for rigorous safety testing, transparency from AI companies, and enhanced national resilience.
Miliband outlined three key areas for action: ensuring frontier AI models are rigorously tested, demanding transparency from AI companies to allow governments to assess their activities, and hardening defenses against AI-enabled incidents, including boosting cyber defenses and protecting critical infrastructure. He noted that leading AI companies have committed to providing visibility into their operations, an offer that governments and companies should pursue.
The UK has established the AI Security Institute, the first of its kind, to test leading AI systems before public release and share its expertise. The institute, part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, receives £66 million annually and employs over 100 technical staff. Dr. Jade Leung has been appointed Vice-Chair of the institute and Security Advisor to the government’s AI Taskforce.
Meanwhile, a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warns that the market power of Big Tech companies is stifling competition in the UK and could prevent the country from fully benefiting from AI. The report indicates that a few companies dominate the digital infrastructure, and without pro-competitive measures, AI risks becoming monopolized. A survey for the IPPR found that 79% of UK businesses are concerned about Big Tech using its dominance to limit competition, ranking it as a greater constraint than access to finance or talent. The report specifically points to Google's near-monopoly in UK internet searches and the significant market share held by Microsoft and AWS in cloud services.