The UK technology secretary has urged the country to “make AI work for Britain”, brushing off fears about its impact on jobs and cybersecurity as the government announced its first investment under a £500m sovereign AI fund.

Liz Kendall said the UK had to “seize” the opportunity offered by AI despite concerns underlined this month when US startup Anthropic revealed it had developed an AI model that posed a potentially significant cyber threat.

Asked how the government makes the case for embracing a technology that could disrupt jobs and now cybersecurity, Kendall said: “We have to seize this to make it work, for Britain, for our jobs, for solving the biggest challenges we face as a world.”

Speaking on Thursday as the government unveiled its first investment in a UK company as part of a £500m sovereign AI fund, Kendall acknowledged “people are worried about the risks and what it means for their jobs”, but AI entrepreneurs also believed they can “make it work … they can create jobs”.

In January Kendall admitted “some jobs will go” as AI automates certain tasks and roles, but it would also create new employment opportunities.

The government announced on Thursday it had taken an undisclosed shareholding in London-based Callosum, a company that helps different types of computer chips work together efficiently to train and operate AI models. It has also taken a stake in an as-yet-unnamed second business.

Six UK companies will also receive access to a network of government-funded supercomputers to help them develop AI models in exchange for “a right of first refusal” to invest in some of those firms. The value of that supercomputer access counts towards the £500m fund.

The startups using that extra compute capacity include Prima Mente, which is building “biological foundation models” to tackle diseases like Alzheimer’s; Cursive, a company developing autonomous AI agents founded by Google DeepMind alumni; and Odyssey, which develops ‘world models’, an approach to AI where systems interact with a convincing simulation of the real world.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said that by supporting national AI champions, the UK could ensure that internationally competitive companies can “start, scale and stay here in Britain”. The sovereign AI unit, designed to act like a venture capital fund, was launched officially on Thursday at the London offices of Wayve, a self-driving car startup now worth $8.6bn (£6.4bn).

Danyal Akarca, co-founder of Callosum, said the UK was the “natural place” to build his company due to its strong university talent and private AI labs like DeepMind.