Business News – Jan 10, 2025

1 - British AI startup with government ties is developing tech for military drones

Jasper Jolly. The Guardian. Jan 7, 2025

Exclusive: Concerns raised over role of Faculty AI, which has worked with National Health Service and government safety body

A company that has worked closely with the UK government on artificial intelligence safety, the National Health Service and education is also developing AI for military drones.

The consultancy Faculty AI has “experience developing and deploying AI models on to UAVs”, or unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a defence industry partner company.

Faculty has emerged as one of the most active companies selling AI services in the UK. Unlike the likes of OpenAI, Deepmind or Anthropic, it does not develop models itself, instead focusing on reselling models, notably from OpenAI, and consulting on their use in government and industry.

Faculty gained particular prominence in the UK after working on data analysis for the Vote Leave campaign under Dominic Cummings, who went on to serve as Boris Johnson’s adviser. Johnson’s government later gave work to Faculty during the pandemic, and included its chief executive, Marc Warner, in meetings of its scientific advisory panel.

Since then the company, officially called Faculty Science, has carried out testing of AI models for the UK government’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), set up in 2023 under former prime minister Rishi Sunak.

Governments around the world are racing to understand the safety implications of artificial intelligence, after rapid improvements in generative AI prompted a wave of hype around its possibilities.

Weapons companies are keen to potentially put AI on drones, ranging from “loyal wingmen” that could fly alongside fighter jets, to loitering munitions that are already capable of waiting for targets to appear before firing on them.

The latest technological developments have raised the prospect of drones that can track and kill without a human “in the loop” making the final decision.

In a press release announcing a partnership with London-based Faculty, the British startup Hadean wrote that the two companies are working together on “subject identification, tracking object movement, and exploring autonomous swarming development, deployment and operations”.

It is understood that Faculty’s work with Hadean did not include weapons targeting. However, Faculty did not answer questions on whether it was working on drones capable of applying lethal force, or to give further details of its defence work, citing confidentiality agreements.

A spokesperson for Faculty said: “We help to develop novel AI models that will help our defence partners create safer, more robust solutions,” adding that it has “rigorous ethical policies and internal processes” and follows ethical guidelines on AI from the Ministry of Defence.

The spokesperson said Faculty has a decade of experience in AI safety, including on countering child sexual abuse and terrorism.

The Scott Trust, the ultimate owner of the Guardian, is an investor in Mercuri VC, formerly GMG Ventures, which is a minority shareholder in Faculty.

“We’ve worked on AI safety for a decade and are world-leading experts in this field,” the spokesperson said. “That’s why we’re trusted by governments and model developers to ensure frontier AI is safe, and by defence clients to apply AI ethically to help keep citizens safe.”

Many experts and politicians have called for caution before introducing more autonomous technologies into the military. A House of Lords committee in 2023 called for the UK government to try to set up a treaty or a non-binding agreement to clarify the application of international humanitarian law when it comes to lethal drones. The Green party in September called for laws to outlaw lethal autonomous weapons systems completely.

Faculty continues to work closely with the AISI, putting it in a position where its judgments could be influential for UK government