Eight Months of Fanfare: The UK Government Has Not Tested OpenAI's Tech

When the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI, it was celebrated as a partnership that would harness artificial intelligence to address society's greatest challenges. Eight months later, no trials have taken place.

A freedom of information request submitted to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) revealed that the department had conducted no trials under the memorandum with OpenAI. The department simply replied that it held no such information.

DSIT pointed to a separate agreement under which the Ministry of Justice allowed civil servants to use ChatGPT in October, and referenced ongoing work with the UK AI Safety Institute. But Tarek Nseir, the AI consultant who filed the request, is not impressed.

"Either there's been a huge failure in execution, or a failure of intent," he said. "We use PowerPoint. That doesn't mean we have a strategic relationship with Microsoft."

OpenAI said the freedom of information request didn't capture the full scale of its activities in the UK, and that it was proud of the progress made with the government.

The story raises important questions for CIOs and public sector organizations alike: What does a "strategic AI partnership" actually mean when practical trials never happen? For organizations considering major AI collaborations, this is a reminder that declarations of intent are worthless without concrete deliverables.