Cisco Systems (CSCO) and IBM (IBM) are among the companies chosen by the UK government to train workers in AI skills as part of a 200 million pound ($267 million) national investment to speed adoption of the technology.

The initiative will support programs that help businesses test and scale AI, the UK Department for Science, Innovation & Technology said Monday in a statement.

Cisco signed a memorandum of understanding with the department to support government programs aimed at building digital and AI skills, while IBM is expanding its SkillsBuild program with new and free AI learning courses, according to the statement.

As part of the initiative, the UK government also signed a joint statement with Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google, Microsoft (MSFT), Anthropic, and OpenAI to collaborate with frontier AI labs to support "evidence-based policymaking and responsible AI development," the department said.

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