UK spy agencies need to adopt AI technology to fight emerging threats, government report suggests

AI technology can help British security community to strengthen efficiency and effectiveness of existing processes

A report published by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) strongly recommends the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by British spying agencies to counter a range of threats posed by the adversaries.

RUSI was recently commissioned by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's main intelligence and security organisation, to conduct a study into the use of AI technology for national security purposes.

To carry out the study, experts from RUSI conducted an in-depth consultation with various stakeholders from across the British national security community as well as legal and academic experts, private sector firms, and civil society representatives.

The study has found that AI technology offers lots of opportunities for the UK national security community to strengthen efficiency and effectiveness of existing processes.

The report says that adversaries of UK are likely to use AI technology in future to launch attacks against the British political system as well as its cyber space.

State-backed or other threat groups could use deep fake video and images in targeted campaigns to influence public opinion during elections in Britain country. To create such deep fakes, they will take the help of AI and various other technologies that will enable them to imitate the face and voice of a real person.

Moreover, state-backed cyber actors could also launch attacks to completely disrupt systems handling confidential and sensitive data.

In addition, there is the also possibility of attackers using drones to carry out terrorist activities on British soil.

The British intelligence community should try to discover new AI-based defence measures to counter such threats posed by the adversaries, the report suggests.

But, AI technology will not be able to predict if an adversary is about to conduct a serious crime, against Britain. Therefore, AI is unlikely to replace human judgement, according to experts.

The deployment of AI by intelligence agencies may also require new guidelines to ensure that any intrusion into privacy is necessary and proportionate.

"While AI offers numerous opportunities for UKIC to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing processes, these new capabilities raise additional privacy and human rights considerations which would need to be assessed within the existing legal and regulatory framework," the report says.

"Addressing these concerns is a high priority for the national security community."