The government has announced plans to put frontier AI to work strengthening cyber defences, examining stronger legal protections and preparing for serious incidents involving autonomous AI systems.
The announcement builds on two pilots that have already helped identify and fix over a thousand potential cyber vulnerabilities across government systems, and detect potential cyber threats.
It is hoped that extending the programme will help protect the public services people rely on every day to reduce risk in the short-term, and will support longer-term adoption across the public sector.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan made the announcement at Imperial College London’s science and tech incubator, Base One. He argued for a whole society approach to resilience in the face of emerging AI risks, so that the tech continues to serve British people’s interests and boost prosperity and security.
He also warned that as frontier AI systems become increasingly powerful and capable of acting autonomously, the potential consequences of failures or malicious use could become far more serious.
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said: "I want Britain to become one of the hardest countries in the world to attack using artificial intelligence.
"We will use every power at our disposal. We will legislate wherever necessary. And we won’t look to law alone. We will look to British ingenuity: our scientific expertise, technological capabilities and institutions to understand these increasingly powerful systems, defend against emerging threats and respond when things go wrong.
"And to the companies developing the world’s most powerful AI systems, my message is: Listen when your scientists warn of serious dangers. Investigate unexpected behaviour. And if you cannot adequately control the risks, do not release the system."
Cyber Minister, Liz Lloyd said: "As cyber incidents continue to disrupt globally, organisations large and small, private and public, are all being confronted with an undeniable reality - it’s now business-critical to ensure you’re on the front-foot when it comes to cyber security.
"Through scaling up projects piloting AI to protect public services and progressing a Cyber Bill to boost our defences, government is putting cyber security and AI preparedness at the heart of the UK’s digital future."
