Washington lifts block on British AI model testing access
After a September halt, US officials have restored British safety testers' early access to pre-release models from three leading AI developers, on voluntary terms.
By Standard Topic. AI-generated from the reporting listed under Coverage. Published . Updated .
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What happened
The White House reversed a policy that had required U.S. approval before AI companies could share pre-release models with the UK's AI Security Institute. The restored access covers models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan told Reuters the deal runs on the same voluntary terms as before.
Why it matters
The reversal followed diplomatic pressure from the UK.
Timeline
- September: The Trump administration told the companies to stop sharing their models with the British agency.
- Oct 12, 7:36 AM ET: The White House reversed the policy requiring U.S. approval for sharing new models with British testers.
- Oct 12, 5:21 PM ET: UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan detailed that the restored deal covers OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind on the same voluntary terms.
Coverage
- UK Regains AI Model Access After 17-Day Freeze (tech-insider.org)
- White House Restores UK AI Model Testing Access [2026] (shattered.io)
- UK AI minister details how the restored frontier model testing deal works (startupfortune.com)
- White House reverses course and restores UK AI Safety Institute's access to frontier models (the-decoder.com)
- The U.K. won back access to pre-release OpenAI and Anthropic models (qz.com)
- White House restores UK access to frontier AI models after 17 day freeze (startupfortune.com)
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