George Williamson, director of the Alan Turing Institute, warned that the United Kingdom must avoid reliance on foreign artificial-intelligence systems that could be withdrawn at short notice. He argued that the country’s strategic position in AI lags behind the United States and China, and that building a robust domestic capability is essential for long-term sovereignty and economic stability.
“As AI becomes more embedded in critical services, in domains like defence, national security, critical infrastructure and healthcare we shouldn’t depend solely on systems we can’t inspect or control, or that could be restricted or even switched off,” Williamson told The Guardian. In June, Washington temporarily halted the external release of Anthropic’s latest models and asked leading AI laboratories to pause testing with the UK’s AI Security Institute until U.S. counterparts could review them.
Williamson said national resilience would become a central theme for the institute, echoing concerns raised by the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, who announced a new national centre to counter state-backed disinformation. He also cited Anthropic’s forecast that advanced AI carries more than a ten-percent probability of causing human extinction by 2030, underscoring the urgency of sovereign AI development.
Before joining the Turing Institute, Williamson led His Majesty’s Government Communications Centre, a secretive agency that designs equipment for UK intelligence services and once employed Alan Turing himself. His experience in government-level technology procurement informs his call for greater control over AI tools and the ability to deploy them without external restrictions.
In recent weeks European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen urged the continent to achieve AI self-sufficiency, warning that dependence on US or Chinese technology could lead to being cut off. Williamson agreed, noting that while the United Kingdom cannot match the funding of major AI firms, it can generate nationally owned intellectual property or smaller models that remain accessible to domestic startups.
Williamson framed climate change as a national security issue, arguing that environmental resilience fits within the broader concept of national resilience. He recalled that in 2025 technology secretary Peter Kyle wrote to the institute’s chair demanding a shift toward defence and security research, a request that preceded the resignation of his predecessor, Jean Innes. This history, he said, illustrates the tension between strategic priorities and broader societal challenges.