--- title: Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI... description: The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, including autonomous AI agents meant to find security flaws in critical infrastructure... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create | daily.dev og:description: The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, including autonomous AI agents meant to find security flaws in critical infrastructure... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/R41xxtgHJ.png og:image:alt: Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create **[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, including autonomous AI agents meant to find security flaws in critical infrastructure before attackers do. £60 million funds a National Cyber Shield using agentic AI, and £70 million creates the NERV Centre to hunt vulnerabilities across the economy. The announcement comes days after the PHP2Shell incident, where critical PHP flaws took dozens of government sites offline. AI minister Kanishka Narayan said AI had uncovered 500 previously unknown flaws across significant parts of the public sector. It's unclear how much autonomy the new AI defenders will have or when they'll deploy. The spending is part of a wider £600 million AI package that also funds the AI Security Institute and a biosecurity lab. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much money is the UK government spending on AI cybersecurity defenses? The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, part of a wider £600 million-plus AI package. This includes £60 million for a National Cyber Shield using agentic AI, £70 million for a new National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre, and £120 million separately for the AI Security Institute testing dangerous AI capabilities. _Security teams weighing AI-assisted vulnerability hunting can follow how national programs like this unfold on daily.dev._ ### What was the PHP2Shell vulnerability that affected UK government websites? PHP2Shell was a critical flaw scare in the widely used PHP scripting language that took dozens of UK government websites offline. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre worked with OpenAI to coordinate disclosure after AI-assisted researchers uncovered the flaws, giving affected vendors time to prepare fixes before the issue became public. _Developers running PHP in production can track disclosures like this one through daily.dev to patch before exploitation._ ### How many security flaws has AI found in UK government systems so far? AI technology uncovered 500 previously unknown security flaws across significant parts of the UK public sector, according to AI minister Kanishka Narayan. This finding is cited as part of the justification for Whitehall's new £130 million investment in AI-powered cyber defense, including plans for autonomous AI agents to guard critical infrastructure. _Anyone evaluating AI vulnerability scanning tools can track results like these on daily.dev before deciding to adopt them._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Britain steps up its defences against AI risks](https://daily.dev/posts/britain-steps-up-its-defences-against-ai-risks-x9slpldir) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK cyber agency unveils AI-powered Cyber Shield to counter attacks at machine speed](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-cyber-agency-unveils-ai-powered-cyber-shield-to-counter-attacks-at-machine-speed-v3txah6rz) · CSO Online · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK Government Sound Alarm Over AI Security Risk](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-government-sound-alarm-over-ai-security-risk-ligwbbmck) · IT Security Guru · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK keeps AI safeguards in the maybe pile for Cyber Security BIll](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-keeps-ai-safeguards-in-the-maybe-pile-for-cyber-security-bill-8kmpkdkyh) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK funds £100m AI biosecurity lab with OpenAI and Anthropic](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-funds-100m-ai-biosecurity-lab-with-openai-and-anthropic-2fibac6yx) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T11:04:04.532Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T11:19:45.776Z","description":"The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, including autonomous AI agents meant to find security flaws in critical infrastructure...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/be68282eb511ac2fee43df0eb77fe27d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/be68282eb511ac2fee43df0eb77fe27d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Register","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Register","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/66aa2113fdad463992ffcbf0e8963fda","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,openai,anthropic","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Register","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Britain bets big on AI to defend against the threats AI is helping create"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/britain-bets-big-on-ai-to-defend-against-the-threats-ai-is-helping-create-r41xxtghj#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much money is the UK government spending on AI cybersecurity defenses?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The UK government is spending £130 million on AI-powered cyber defenses, part of a wider £600 million-plus AI package. 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