ChatGPT, the company behind ChatGPT, is opening its first office outside of the US in London. This will help Rishi sunak in his bid to turn Britain into a hub for artificial intelligence.
OpenAI chose London as its headquarters because of the “vibrant tech ecosystem” and “exceptional talents” that London has to offer.
The company has also hired lobbyists in Britain, as ministers are seeking to make Britain the beacon of laws governing artificial AI.
OpenAI is the leading artificial intelligence company after releasing ChatGPT in November last year.
Since then, the chatbot has amassed millions of users. This has led to widespread warnings about job loss and societal disruption.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, was in the UK last month on a European Tour and revealed that he had been scouting locations for an international office. He said that he was looking at locations such as France.
The UK has proposed new AI legislation that is seen as being more business-friendly and less restrictive than the strict EU regulations.
OpenAI announced a job opening for a “London-based policy and partnerships lead”. Sandro Gianella was appointed to oversee policy in Europe. He previously worked at payments giant Stripe.
OpenAI’s UK policy head will be responsible for “further regulations and industry standards”, as well as building relationships with politicians.
Mr Altman stated: “We view this expansion as a chance to attract world-class talents and drive innovation in AGI (artificial general Intelligence) development and policy.”
AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is often referred to as the “holy grail” of AI. It would allow machines, instead of just performing specific tasks, to think for themselves.
Mr Altman stated: “We are excited about the future and the contributions that our London office will be able to make in building and deploying AI that is safe.”
OpenAI stated that the London office will focus on both AI technology development and policy surrounding it. Sunak is planning to host a summit on AI later this year to encourage world leaders agree on the safe development of systems.
DeepMind is Google’s artificial-intelligence lab and is located in London’s King’s Cross. Anthropic is another well-funded AI startup that is opening an office there, while Palantir, the data giant, has designated the UK as its European AI center.
OpenAI has already a few staff who work remotely in the UK, but its main operations are in San Francisco.