The UK government, backed by a $1 million meta grant to the Alan Turing Institute, is launching a 12-month open source AI fellowship to bring top AI engineers to the government.
These AI engineers will work under fellowships, build open source AI tools that improve public services, increase productivity and support national security.
These tools can be used for high security use cases across the public sector, such as language translation in the context of national security, and can utilize construction planning data to speed up the approval process and build more homes.
It can also help expand “Humphrey,” a bundle of AI tools that helps civil servants deliver more effectively on the Minister’s request and take away the burden of administrators involved in summarizing document, getting memos, and summarizing consultation responses.
How AI Engineers Take Action in the UK
AI engineers will focus on using open source AI models. This will reduce taxpayer costs when using AI widely, unlocking productivity gains of up to £45 billion across the public sector.
This follows the Prime Minister, showing that he is “deterred to seize” the opportunity for AI to transform the nation, making it clear that no one in the government should do anything that AI can do better and cheaper.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “This fellowship is the best AI of AI, open, practical and built for the public good. It’s about creating not only ideas, but real tools that help governments work well for people.
“AI experts will help expand such impacts across governments and develop the sovereignty capabilities that the UK must lead, such as national security and critical infrastructure.”
Caddy: AI Assistant Program to Support in the Workplace
The AI expert fellowship is alongside news that “Caddy,” an AI assistant who helps call centre workers, is open sourced, and call centers around the world can benefit from the technology.
Tested with citizen advice that has worked with the government to build technology, first used by the central government, and it is a cabinet agency team that has quickly accessed expert guidance on grant decisions, speed, consistency and value of money.
An early test of 1,000 calls showed that response times can be halved. The results also showed that 80% of Caddy-generated responses are ready for use without revisions, and advisors using Caddy are twice as confident in providing accurate responses.
AI Knowledge Hub: Help teams improve their technology use
The government is also beginning the next phase of the AI Knowledge Hub. This is a growing platform that shares real-world examples, tools and tips for ensuring teams can use AI in the right way.
The hub is designed to help departments learn from each other, avoid overlapping, and move from small pilots to real results.
As part of the next phase, new features will be added, including a rapid library that helps teams use AI to increase their daily productivity and provide faster and better service.
AI experts can now register interests in fellowships
AI engineers can find details and register their interests ahead of the application that will be released next week.
The fellowship began in January 2026 and lasts for 12 months. Meanwhile, all use cases will be developed, announced and open sawed for wider public use.
Joel Kaplan, META’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, concluded: “The open source AI model helps researchers and developers make major scientific and medical breakthroughs, and could also transform public service delivery.
“This partnership with the Alan Turing Institute will help governments access some of the best AI engineers and the technology they need to solve major challenges and openly access the public interest.”
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