TORUS
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Read about latest UK AI news on new Oxford and UCL labs, AI cyber risk, Seedcamp funding, tools and jobs for founders and operators.
Let’s dive in.
Today’s AI Signal
UK backs two AI labs at Oxford and UCL
The UK government, DSIT and UKRI announced two new AI research labs hosted by Oxford and UCL. UKRI says the work is backed by £60m, with one lab focused on open-source AI that can run on common hardware and the other on AI that can learn without huge central compute.
For UK businesses, this is the useful part: the UK is not just trying to buy more compute. It is trying to make AI cheaper, more reliable and easier to use. Oxford says the BOLD lab will focus on open, human-centred and resource-efficient AI systems for workplaces, infrastructure and public services.
Five Eyes warns AI cyber risk is now a board issue
Cyber agencies from the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned that frontier AI could change offensive and defensive cyber capability within months, not years. The warning said AI will improve cyber defence over time, but it also increases the speed, scale and sophistication of attacks.
This matters for UK operators because AI adoption is moving faster than governance in many companies. If an AI tool can access customer data, finance systems or internal documents, cyber risk now sits with leadership, not just IT.
British Business Bank backs Seedcamp’s AI funds
British Business Bank has committed capital to two new Seedcamp funds: Seedcamp VII and Seedcamp Nation II. Seedcamp VII will invest in AI-native and software companies at pre-seed and seed stage, while Nation II will support selected portfolio companies moving towards Series B and later rounds.
The UK funding gap is not only at company formation. It often appears when startups need larger rounds to grow. This kind of backing gives UK and European AI founders more room to keep building without rushing overseas for capital.
Global AI headlines
TODAY’S LESSON
NotebookLM for turning messy business information into a working brief.
Tuesday is tool day. Today’s pick is NotebookLM.
Best for: founders, operators, marketers, consultants and small teams who deal with too many PDFs, notes, reports and meeting docs.
NotebookLM lets you upload sources and ask questions against that material. Google says recent upgrades added stronger reasoning, source discovery, code execution, charts, spreadsheets, slide decks and report creation for eligible users.
A simple NotebookLM workflow:
Create one notebook for a client, project or market.
Upload meeting notes, proposals, webpages, reports and competitor pages.
Ask NotebookLM to create a one-page brief with:
what matters
risks
open questions
next actions
Ask it to turn the same material into a client email, sales outline or internal update.
You can even create podcast style audio, visual charts, infographics etc.
Take it to next level by connecting with Gemini.
NotebookLM Pricing at a high level
NotebookLM has a free plan with usage limits. Google lists NotebookLM among its free AI tools, while some advanced features are tied to selected Google AI and Workspace business accounts.
Use it when your team is wasting time reading the same documents again and again.
UK AI tools and offers
Tool: Glide
Glide turns spreadsheets into simple internal apps with automation and AI features. A UK SMB could use it to build a lightweight quote tracker, customer request portal or operations dashboard without hiring a developer.
Read more → https://www.producthunt.com/categories/ai-software
Offer: OpenAI Academy
OpenAI Academy offers free AI learning, including AI Foundations for people new to AI. For UK founders and operators, it is a low-cost way to train staff on prompts, context, output checking and responsible use.
Read more → https://academy.openai.com/
Tool: Microsoft 365 Copilot for Small Business
If your UK SMB already uses Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium, you can add Copilot for £13.80 per user per month (paid yearly) to get AI across Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams. One simple workflow: after a client call in Teams, ask Copilot to summarise the discussion, pull out action items, and draft a follow-up email. You edit it once and send. Read more
Tool: GitHub Copilot (with the new credit model in mind)
If your team codes in VS Code, JetBrains, or any major IDE, Copilot now offers token-based access to multiple AI models including Claude, Gemini, and GPT-5 series, not just Microsoft's own.
Code completions remain free and unlimited. Start by checking your admin console to see which features your team actually uses before deciding whether to upgrade from Business to Enterprise tier. Read more
Tool: Google AI Studio
Google AI Studio lets users test Gemini models and build simple prototypes in the browser. For a UK founder, the practical use is testing prompts, checking model behaviour and shaping a simple AI workflow before paying a developer. Google says AI Studio usage is free in available regions, with model and API limits. Read more.
Tool: BuiltInEurope.com - free AI startup jobs portal
Balderton's new portal aggregates 19,781 live roles across 1,000+ AI-first startups and scale-ups in the UK and Europe, searchable by role, location, and sector.
Whether you are hiring or looking to join an AI-first company, this is the most comprehensive free European startup jobs database available today. Apply Here
UK AI Job Opportunities
Wayve – Senior Machine Learning Engineer, London – end-to-end neural networks for autonomous driving at one of the UK's best-known applied AI companies.
Apply → https://builtineurope.comStructureFlow (legal tech scale-up) – Senior AI Engineer, £79K–£106K per year (London, flexible hours) – join engineering team building AI tools for Magic Circle law firms and US AMLAW 200.
Apply → https://www.totaljobs.com/jobs/artificial-intelligence/in-londonIBM Consulting UK – Data Scientist, AI & Advanced Analytics, London – build and deliver AI and analytics projects for public and private sector clients using open cloud tooling.
Apply → https://www.jobijoba.co.uk/detail/92/e0b38a354ab4a48e46debebf5f30611fSolveAI - AI Engineer, London (Hybrid, Contract) – £45,100–£60,400 per annum – forward-deployed engineer
Perplexity - UK Internship Program.
Perplexity’s London internship is a 13-week programme for Master’s or PhD students in the UK, run hybrid from the London office. For early-career readers, this is one of the sharper brand-name entries on the board.
Stay in the loop - TORUS tracks UK and European AI so you do not have to.
You are reading TORUS because you want to stay ahead of where AI is going, not just where it is today. If you find this useful, forward it to one UK founder, operator or policy‑maker who should be thinking about AI infrastructure, tools and skills right now.
