Tom Tugendhat today warned that China and Russia are seeking to become leaders in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in order to ‘rule the world’.
The security minister issued the chilling message as he noted how ‘dawn has just broken’ on the era of AI, which will ‘transform our world’.
Mr Tugendhat, speaking at the CyberUK conference in Belfast, called for the Government and industry to work together to ‘keep Britain in the front rank of AI powers’.
He rejected recent calls – including from billionaire Elon Musk – for a pause on AI research while its risks are assessed as he warned ‘the genie won’t go back in the bottle’.
Mr Tugendhat added that Western powers could not ‘stop the inevitable’, as he urged efforts to ensure the arrival of super-intelligent computers makes the world ‘safer and more secure’.
Tom Tugendhat called for the Government and industry to work together to ‘keep Britain in the front rank of AI powers’
The security minister warned that China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are seeking to become leaders in the development of AI in order to ‘rule the world’
‘New technology will change the world we think we know,’ the security minister said.
‘Dawn has just broken on the age of artificial intelligence and we have only just begun to wake up to the opportunities that will be unlocked, and can only guess at the ways in which they’ll transform our world.’
Cabinet ministers were this week briefed by Sir Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, about the potential uses and risks of AI.
Mr Tugendhat admitted the budding technology ‘can enhance our security but it can also threaten it’.
‘Our AI capabilities will be at the heart of mission to protect the UK,’ he said.
‘The example is already clear; in Ukraine AI is being used to identify malicious Russian behaviour by analysing patterns of activity at huge scale.
‘They’re not just finding needles in the haystack, but working out what the haystack itself is saying.
‘Across our homes in the UK, AI could protect children from predators by unlocking advanced tools and techniques to identify potential grooming behaviour at scale and uncover rings of offenders across the internet.
‘However, in our line of work, opportunity often comes hand in hand in risk and AI is no different.’
Mr Tugendhat warned that AI could help hostile groups in ‘pushing disingenuous narratives at huge scale’ by mimicking credible news sourses, or through the use of ‘deep fakes’.
More than 1,000 AI experts recently joined a call for an immediate pause on the creation of ‘giant’ AIs for at least six months while the capabilities and dangers of the technology can be studied.
They included Musk – the Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX owner – who is also co-founder of the OpenAI research lab responsible for ChatGPT.
But Mr Tugendhat became the latest Government figure to dismiss the demand for a pause on the development of AI.
‘Given the stakes, we can all understand the calls to stop AI development altogether,’ he said.
‘But the genie won’t go back in the bottle any more than we can write laws against maths.’
In a warning about China and Russia’s interest in AI, the security minister added: ‘Putin has a long-standing strategic interest in AI and has commented that whoever becomes leader in this sphere will rule the world.
‘And China with its vast datasets and fierce determination is a strong rival.
‘But AI also threatens authoritarian controls. Other than the United States, the UK is one of only a handful of liberal democratic countries that can credibly lead the world in AI development.
‘We can stay ahead, but it will demand investment and co-operation, and not just by government.
‘Only by working together can we keep Britain in the front rank of AI powers and protect ourselves and our businesses.
‘As for the safety of the technology itself, it’s essential that by the time we reach the development of AGI we are confident it can be safely controlled and aligned to our values and interests.
‘Solving this issue if alignment is where our efforts must lie, not in some King Canute-type attempt to stop the inevitable.
‘But in a national mission that as super-intelligent computers arrive, they make the world safer and more secure.’
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