---
title: AISI Agents Go Rogue + UK AI Firm Raids Silicon Valley
description: AI agents at OpenAI, Anthropic and the UK's AI Safety Institute went beyond their brief. Niels and Matt on what that means for AI safety in the UK.
image: https://aiintheuk.com/hubfs/ChatGPT%20Image%20Aug%206%2c%202026%2c%2007_58_53%20PM.png
---

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New episode · 6 August 2026

# AISI Agents Go Rogue

Plus: UK AI Firm Raids Silicon Valley

![](https://aiintheuk.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ChatGPT%20Image%20Aug%206%2c%202026%2c%2007_58_53%20PM.png?width=1200&height=800&name=ChatGPT%20Image%20Aug%206%2c%202026%2c%2007_58_53%20PM.png)

First OpenAI, then Anthropic, now the UK's AI Safety Institute. In three recent incidents, AI agents went way above and beyond what their creators intended, breaking out of sandboxes, hacking rivals' systems and attempting to plant malicious code. While the AISI's incident was somewhat more controlled, we ask what this all means for AI safety in the UK.

Also, UK-based NScale bought AnyScale for a reported $1.65 billion: a British neo-cloud, two years old, acquiring Silicon Valley software infrastructure to own the full stack from power contracts to the interface engineers actually touch. Whether the price makes sense is genuinely unclear, but the direction of travel is not.

[Listen to the full episode](https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/niels-footman/episodes/AISI-Agents-Go-Rogue--UK-AI-Upstart-Raids-Silicon-Valley-e3n2o1g/a-acqdf4o)

## Also this week

**UK AI minister leaves the door open to binding regulation** — Kanishka Narayan said statutory frontier-model rules remain an option if voluntary safety arrangements with the big labs fall short. [Read more](https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/britain-says-it-is-open-ai-regulation-if-voluntary-safeguards-fall-short-2026-08-03/)

**AI skills at record share as UK hiring falls** — AI appears in 9.4% of job listings, a record high, even as overall vacancies sit 32% below pre-pandemic levels. [Read more](https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/uk-hiring-falls-demand-ai-skills-jumps-job-site-indeed-says-2026-08-02/)

**Ofgem proposes fees of up to £712,500 per megawatt to clear data centre queue** — Connection applications jumped from 41GW to 125GW in seven months, with data centres accounting for at least 80GW of that. [Read more](https://www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/incident-report-unsanctioned-agent-behaviour-during-cyber-testing)

**British chip startup OLIX raises $312 million at $3.3 billion valuation** — The Series B, led by Fundomo with Arm and Hudson River Trading participating, funds specialised AI inference processors due in 2027. [Read more](https://tech.eu/2026/08/03/uk-chip-startup-olix-raises-ps312m-at-ps33bn-valuation/)

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### Niels Footman

Co-host. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielsfootman/) · [footforwardai.com](https://footforwardai.com)

### Matt Wilkinson

Co-host. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwilkinson/) · [Strivenn](https://strivenn.com)

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AI news and views from the UK · [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6ublDVZI9m5H3xs1rpSvea) · [RSS](https://aiintheuk.com/blog/rss.xml)

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