OpenAI Expands UK Presence: Data Residency and Government Partnership

UK Ministry of Justice signs up to ChatGPT Enterprise

OpenAI has signed up the UK's Ministry of Justice as the latest public sector customer for ChatGPT Enterprise. The agreement will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise on the desktops of 2,500 employees for use in "routine tasks," such as writing support, compliance and legal work, data and research processes, and document analysis. It doesn't appear that it will feature in lawmaking, but neither OpenAI nor the Ministry of Justice gave us any more details regarding specifics, beyond what has already been made public, nor did we get a response about timelines or how much the deal is worth. OpenAI is also introducing UK data residency on October 24, thus easing some regulatory concerns. OpenAI calls it "Sovereign AI," although true sovereignty means considerably more than where data is stored. Processing must also be considered. According to OpenAI, the MoJ is the first to take advantage of UK data residency under the agreement. The UK is an important market for OpenAI, ranking among the top five globally for paid subscribers and developers. CEO Sam Altman said: "The number of people using our products in the UK has increased fourfold in the past year. "It's exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done. Civil servants are using ChatGPT to improve public services and established firms are reimagining operations. We're proud to continue supporting the UK and the government's AI plan." ChatGPT is already used in several tools, including "Humphrey" - an AI assistant designed to take some of the administrative load off civil servants - and "Consult," which sorts public consultation responses to speed up the public consultation process. The government last week issued a release that attributes impressive time savings and efficiency gains to the use of the Consult tool. The software took two hours to categorize more than 50,000 responses to a government-commissioned review of the water sector. Experts needed a further 22 hours to check the results. UK government said "the work of 'Consult' was compared to two groups of experts. It agreed with one or both of the groups almost 83 percent of the time, while the two well-practiced human groups only agreed with each other 55 percent of the time." It was also deployed to support analysis by the Scottish government and to sort responses to the Digital Inclusion Action Plan. OpenAI is not the only AI with its claws in the British administration. The Department for Health and Social Care reported productivity improvements during a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot covering 30,000 NHS staff across 90 organizations. According to Microsoft, an average of 43 minutes per person per day was saved. The figures were then extrapolated to 400,000 hours of staff time being saved every month - "amounting to millions of hours annually." A trial at the Department for Business and Trade showed little or no discernible gain in productivity, however. Some tasks such as writing emails or summarizing meetings were improved. Other tasks like data analysis did not go so well, with quality and accuracy poorer when using the AI tools. The Register asked OpenAI and the Ministry of Justice how quality would be assured with the rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise, but we have yet to receive a response. The addition of data residency will remove a barrier to the public sector's use of OpenAI's technology. Given the variable results of trials using Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI's ChatGPT is poised to make further inroads as the UK government drives its AI agenda forward. ®

UK ChatGPT users will finally have a say in where their data is stored

Civil servants in the MoJ will also get access to ChatGPT for enterprise The UK Government has announced an agreement with OpenAI to expand the UK's sovereign AI capability, providing more data security and safety for users. From October 24 2025 onwards, British customers and developers will have the option to store their data within UK servers, which will help meet data protection laws - including GDPR, a much stricter set of requirements than its US counterparts. This will be a welcome announcement for many UK businesses, many of which don't know where their data is stored. The lack of data sovereignty has been a cause of growing concern, with many worried about the potential ramifications of their data being stored in the US. The new ChatGPT workspace, provisioned with data residency, is set to store customer content in the chosen region at rest. This includes files, image generation, conversations, code interpreter and data analysis, canvas, ChatGPT Memory, and custom GPTs. This still leaves some information which may be stored outside of the selected area, including, but not limited to; workspace metadata, third-party services, connectors and MCP, and transient or processing steps (needed for service functionality). Part of the government's AI Action plan, this latest agreement also brings ChatGPT to civil servants in the Ministry of Justice, providing 2,500 employees with ChatGPT Enterprise. "The number of people using our products in the UK has increased fourfold in the past year," noted Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO. "It's exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done. Civil servants are using ChatGPT to improve public services and established firms are reimagining operations. We're proud to continue supporting the UK and the Government's AI plan." The government has already laid out extensive plans to inject AI into the UK public sector, which paired with £14 billion in private sector investment, aims to bring the country to the top of the global AI market for both consumers and businesses.

OpenAI to offer UK data residency driven by government partnership

The plan, secured through OpenAI's partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), will enhance privacy and security as well as reinforcing resilience to cyber threats, the government said. OpenAI will offer Britain's government and businesses an opportunity to store data in the UK from Friday, helping unlock the potential of AI for more companies and public services, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy will announce on Thursday. The plan, secured through OpenAI's partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), will enhance privacy and security as well as reinforcing resilience to cyber threats, the government said. Led by Sam Altman, OpenAI upended the tech industry with the launch of ChatGPT, its AI chatbot in late 2022. It signed a partnership with the British government in July to work together to use AI to improve public services. Lammy, who will announce the sovereign capability at the OpenAI Frontiers event, said AI was already improving efficiency in the MoJ. More than 1,000 probation officers would be equipped with Justice Transcribe, an AI tool that records and transcribes conversations with offenders, saving hours spent transferring notes into digital systems, he said. "By adopting AI, we're cutting the burdensome admin and ensuring frontline staff can spend more of their time doing the things only humans can do - monitoring offenders and protecting the British public," he said. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the number of people using its products in the UK had increased fourfold in the past year. "It's exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done," he said. UK data residency will be an option for customers using API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise and ChatGPT Edu. OpenAI's Matt Weaver, head of EMEA solutions engineers, said pilot projects in the MoJ had sparked interest from other departments. "We expect adoption to accelerate now we've got the first deployment taking place," he said in an interview. ChatGPT, which competes with Anthropic, Perplexity and others as well as big tech companies like Google and Microsoft, on Tuesday announced ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser built around its popular chatbot. Its arrival could accelerate a shift to AI-driven search as users seek tailored information rather than keyword-based results

OpenAI To Offer UK Data Residency From Friday: What It Means - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

OpenAI will begin offering U.K. government agencies and businesses the option to store data within the country starting Friday. Partnership With UK Ministry Of Justice The initiative, launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, will be announced by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy at the OpenAI Frontiers event, reported Reuters. "By adopting AI, we're cutting the burdensome admin and ensuring frontline staff can spend more of their time doing the things only humans can do - monitoring offenders and protecting the British public," he said. See Also: Gene Munster Says Google Will Be 'Fine' As OpenAI Will Find It Hard To Gain Market Share With New Atlas Browser For This Reason OpenAI Sees Fourfold Growth In Users Over Past Year OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted a fourfold increase in U.K. users over the past year. "It's exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done," he said. U.K. data residency will be available for API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise and ChatGPT Edu. OpenAI Challenges Google And Microsoft Earlier this week, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Atlas, viewed as a threat to Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Atlas is an AI-powered web browser built around its chatbot. OpenAI has also reportedly been valued at $500 billion. Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings show that GOOGL maintains a strong performance across short, medium and long-term periods, with a full breakdown available here. Read More: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Says Intel Spent 33 Years 'Trying To Kill Us' But Now Calls The Chip Rival A Partner: 'We're Lovers, Not Fighters' Photo Courtesy: Vitor Miranda on Shutterstock.com Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. GOOGAlphabet Inc$252.630.51%OverviewGOOGLAlphabet Inc$251.780.53%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$520.800.61%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI to offer UK data residency driven by government partnership

LONDON (Reuters) -OpenAI will offer Britain's government and businesses an opportunity to store data in the UK from Friday, helping unlock the potential of AI for more companies and public services, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy will announce on Thursday. The plan, secured through OpenAI's partnership with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), will enhance privacy and security as well as reinforcing resilience to cyber threats, the government said. Led by Sam Altman, OpenAI upended the tech industry with the launch of ChatGPT, its AI chatbot in late 2022. It signed a partnership with the British government in July to work together to use AI to improve public services. Lammy, who will announce the sovereign capability at the OpenAI Frontiers event, said AI was already improving efficiency in the MoJ. More than 1,000 probation officers would be equipped with Justice Transcribe, an AI tool that records and transcribes conversations with offenders, saving hours spent transferring notes into digital systems, he said. "By adopting AI, we're cutting the burdensome admin and ensuring frontline staff can spend more of their time doing the things only humans can do - monitoring offenders and protecting the British public," he said. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the number of people using its products in the UK had increased fourfold in the past year. "It's exciting to see them using AI to save time, increase productivity, and get more done," he said. UK data residency will be an option for customers using API Platform, ChatGPT Enterprise and ChatGPT Edu. OpenAI's Matt Weaver, head of EMEA solutions engineers, said pilot projects in the MoJ had sparked interest from other departments. "We expect adoption to accelerate now we've got the first deployment taking place," he said in an interview. ChatGPT, which competes with Anthropic, Perplexity and others as well as big tech companies like Google and Microsoft, on Tuesday announced ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser built around its popular chatbot. Its arrival could accelerate a shift to AI-driven search as users seek tailored information rather than keyword-based results. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by William James)