Artificial intelligence is “an unstoppable force” that is being weaponised in ways that fall just short of traditional warfare, Britain’s cyberspying chief warned on Wednesday.
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Anne Keast-Butler, director of the communications intelligence agency GCHQ, also said Britain and its allies are in “a space between peace and war” as Russia increases its “daily hybrid activity” against the West, even as Russian combat deaths in Ukraine approach 500,000.
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.
“I’ve spent three decades working in national security and the risk of miscalculation is as high as I’ve ever seen it,” Keast-Butler said in a speech at a World War II code-breaking centre near London.
She said that “tech 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.”
“AI is an unstoppable force with great opportunity,” she added. “But it is also a force with risks.”
Threat from Russia
Keast-Butler singled out Russia as a threat, accusing Moscow of “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust” in Britain and Europe, as well as stealing technology and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts.
“Russia is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe, stretching from the seabed to cyberspace,” she told an audience of computing experts, diplomats, journalists and senior officials.
“One area in sharp focus for us is protecting the data and energy flowing through the critical cables and pipelines in and around British waters,” she added. “We do this by exposing Russia’s intent, motive and underwater capabilities.”
At the same time, she said Russian troops are “going backwards on the battlefield,” with new intelligence suggesting “almost half a million Russian soldiers” have been killed since the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The speech is the latest in a string of warnings from Western intelligence experts that Russia is stepping up hostile activity in a “grey zone” that falls just below the threshold of war.
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.
The head of the UK’s 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.
Keast-Butler said rapid advances in artificial intelligence mean that “the ground beneath our feet is shifting” and there is a “narrowing window for the UK and allies to stay ahead” of countries such as China, a science and technology “superpower.”
She argued that there must be an effort “from boardrooms to living rooms” to make cybersecurity “10 times more urgent.”
The spy chief said that GCHQ is developing a plan to “hardwire cutting-edge agentic AI into machine-speed cyber defence.” Harnessed responsibly, she said, AI can help spies “enhance algorithms, translate foreign languages, and find needles in haystacks quicker than ever before.”
Keast-Butler also stressed the importance of international partnerships as US President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy and disregard for longtime allies strain the relationship between London and Washington.
She said the UK-US intelligence partnership is “fundamental for the security of both our nations.”
GCHQ, short for Government Communications Headquarters, is the UK’s electronic and cyberintelligence agency. It works alongside the domestic security service MI5 and the foreign intelligence agency MI6.
Keast-Butler, the first woman to head the agency, delivered the GCHQ director’s annual lecture speech at the agency’s 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’s supposedly unbreakable secret codes.
Their work both shortened the war and hastened the birth of modern computing.
