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Artificial intelligence is \u201can unstoppable force\u201d that is being weaponised in ways that fall just short of traditional warfare, Britain\u2019s cyberspying chief warned on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Anne Keast-Butler, director of the communications intelligence agency GCHQ, also said Britain and its allies are in \u201ca space between peace and war\u201d as Russia increases its \u201cdaily hybrid activity\u201d against the West, even as Russian combat deaths in Ukraine approach 500,000.<\/p>\n
She said the West risks losing the conflict in cyberspace against Russia and other adversaries unless citizens, companies and governments treat cybersecurity with greater urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent three decades working in national security and the risk of miscalculation is as high as I\u2019ve ever seen it,\u201d Keast-Butler said in a speech at a World War II code-breaking centre near London.<\/p>\n
She said that \u201ctech companies are releasing AI-driven innovations at a remarkable pace, with untold consequences, as algorithms are weaponised often just below the threshold of traditional warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is an unstoppable force with great opportunity,\u201d she added. \u201cBut it is also a force with risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Threat from Russia<\/p>\n
Keast-Butler singled out Russia as a threat, accusing Moscow of \u201crelentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust\u201d in Britain and Europe, as well as stealing technology and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe, stretching from the seabed to cyberspace,\u201d she told an audience of computing experts, diplomats, journalists and senior officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne area in sharp focus for us is protecting the data and energy flowing through the critical cables and pipelines in and around British waters,\u201d she added. \u201cWe do this by exposing Russia\u2019s intent, motive and underwater capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, she said Russian troops are \u201cgoing backwards on the battlefield,\u201d with new intelligence suggesting \u201calmost half a million Russian soldiers\u201d have been killed since the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The speech is the latest in a string of warnings from Western intelligence experts that Russia is stepping up hostile activity in a \u201cgrey zone\u201d that falls just below the threshold of war.<\/p>\n
In recent months, authorities in countries including Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway have alleged that hackers linked to Russia targeted their critical infrastructure, including power plants and dams.<\/p>\n
The head of the UK\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Horne, warned last month that hostile states including Russia, China and Iran are behind the most serious cyberattacks the country faces. He said such attacks could increase dramatically if Britain becomes involved in an international conflict.<\/p>\n
Keast-Butler said rapid advances in artificial intelligence mean that \u201cthe ground beneath our feet is shifting\u201d and there is a \u201cnarrowing window for the UK and allies to stay ahead\u201d of countries such as China, a science and technology \u201csuperpower.\u201d<\/p>\n
She argued that there must be an effort \u201cfrom boardrooms to living rooms\u201d to make cybersecurity \u201c10 times more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spy chief said that GCHQ is developing a plan to \u201chardwire cutting-edge agentic AI into machine-speed cyber defence.\u201d Harnessed responsibly, she said, AI can help spies \u201cenhance algorithms, translate foreign languages, and find needles in haystacks quicker than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keast-Butler also stressed the importance of international partnerships as US President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d foreign policy and disregard for longtime allies strain the relationship between London and Washington.<\/p>\n
She said the UK-US intelligence partnership is \u201cfundamental for the security of both our nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
GCHQ, short for Government Communications Headquarters, is the UK\u2019s electronic and cyberintelligence agency. It works alongside the domestic security service MI5 and the foreign intelligence agency MI6.<\/p>\n
Keast-Butler, the first woman to head the agency, delivered the GCHQ director\u2019s annual lecture speech at the agency\u2019s World War II headquarters of Bletchley Park, a manor house 72 kilometres northwest of London where hundreds of mathematicians, cryptographers, crossword puzzlers, chess masters and other experts worked to crack Nazi Germany\u2019s supposedly unbreakable secret codes.<\/p>\n
Their work both shortened the war and hastened the birth of modern computing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artificial intelligence is \u201can unstoppable force\u201d that is being weaponised in ways that fall just short of traditional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[733,54809,43152,59,57,58,119008,50,154,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-607944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-cyber-attack","tag-cyber-security","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-mi6","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}