The U.K. and U.S. governments announced Monday they will work together in safety testing the most powerful artificial intelligence models. An agreement, signed by Michelle Donelan, the U.K. Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, sets out a plan for collaboration between the two governments. "I think of [the agreement] as marking the next chapter in our journey on AI safety, working hand in glove with the United States government," Donelan told TIME in an interview at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Monday. "I see the role of the United States and the U.K. as being the real driving force in what will become a network of institutes eventually." The U.K. and U.S. AI Safety Institutes were established just one day apart, around the inaugural AI Safety Summit hosted by the U.K. government at Bletchley Park in November 2023.

The Department of Innovation & Technology (InnoTech) under Druk Holding & Investments (DHI), the commercial arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, has partnered with Omdena, a global collaborative platform that makes AI for good accessible to all. This partnership is a step further in DHI InnoTech's mission to strategize technology and innovation pathways to enhance access and diffusion of emerging technologies, and build local capacity in the fields of science and technology. Omdena will assist InnoTech in hosting a global 2-week hackathon wherein InnoTech will identify key themes and issues that can be resolved using innovative AI/ML applications. Omdena will work with 50 AI engineers over an additional 8-week challenge to develop the idea or POC selected from the hackathon into a fully deployable algorithm. The pilot InnoTech-Omdena event will serve as a showcase for local institutions and the general public who are interested in AI/ML.

Cambridge-based AI startup Fetch.ai has announced a partnership with IOTA, an open-source distributed ledger focused on the Internet of Things. Fetch.ai has caught the attention of investors for its potentially groundbreaking machine learning network of autonomous "agents" that can perform real-world tasks. It's also caught our attention, making our list of innovative companies to watch in 2021. IOTA was among the most hyped projects during the 2017 cryptocurrency/blockchain frenzy (or bubble, dependent on your perspective.) While most projects have since collapsed, IOTA continues to go from strength-to-strength and has announced a series of partnerships with giants like Dell and Jaguar Land Rover.