LONDON — The U.K.’s security minister warned this morning that the country had to beat its rivals in the AI race, warning hostile states and criminals would use the technology to look for chinks in the U.K.’s cybersecurity armor.
Speaking at the CyberUK conference in Belfast, Tom Tugendhat said the next level of AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), was coming and it was “not hard to see” future AGI coding weapons.
“It is essential that by the time we reach the development of AGI we are confident that it can be safely controlled and aligned to our values and interests,” he told delegates.
“Given the stakes we can all understand calls to stop AI development altogether but the genie will not go back in the bottle,” he said. “Putin has a long-standing strategic interest in AI. China with its vast data sets and fierce determination is a strong rival.”
But he added that AI also threatened authoritarian regimes and the U.K. was one of the few liberal, democratic countries which could lead the world in AI development. “We can stay ahead but it will demand investment and cooperation,” he said.
Tugendhat also warned: “Our most capable adversaries will only get better, adding: “Ransomware is a chronic threat, barriers to entry have come down. This is a democratization of crime. The question that we should all be asking is what next? The enemy will evolve and so must we.”
The minister also outlined his policy priorities with a consultation on updating the Computer Misuse Act now underway. It would give government powers to take control of domains and IP addresses used by criminals, but he told the audience of cybersecurity experts that he wanted to get their views.
