UK cyber defences will ‘inevitably’ be breached as AI risks grow, warns Indian-origin minister

Britain's Cabinet minister for Artificial Intelligence, Kanishka Narayan, on Monday issued a stark warning over the risks posed by AI as the UK government unveiled a suite of measures to bolster the country's cyber defences.

In a speech at Imperial College London's science and tech incubator, Base One, the Indian-origin minister called for a whole-society approach to resilience in the face of emerging AI risks.

He cautioned that as frontier AI systems become increasingly powerful and capable of acting autonomously, the potential consequences of failures or malicious use could become far more serious.

"It seems likely, if not inevitable, that our own cyber defences will be breached," said Narayan, referencing the recent high-profile OpenAI agent that breached Australian government defences.

"The Australian government has said that no personal medical records are known to have been accessed, and there is no evidence of wider compromise. But the incident should concern us. It concerns me.

"Our National Cyber Security Centre has warned that AI will almost certainly make elements of cyber intrusion more effective and efficient," he said.

Narayan said that his colleague, Security Minister Dan Jarvis, will be leading a cross-government program to strengthen the UK's defences against cyber-attacks in the wake of the 'Government Cyber Action Plan' published earlier this year.

The India-born Welsh minister also pointed out that the launch of a new 'National Cyber Action Plan' is also in the pipeline.

He stated: "I want Britain to become one of the hardest countries in the world to attack using artificial intelligence. We will use every power at our disposal. We will legislate wherever necessary.

"And we won't look to law alone. We will look to British ingenuity: our scientific expertise, technological capabilities and institutions to understand these increasingly powerful systems, defend against emerging threats and respond when things go wrong."

The Cabinet minister issued a stern message to companies developing the world's most powerful AI systems, to listen when scientists warn of serious dangers, investigate unexpected behaviour and do not release the system if risks cannot be adequately controlled.

According to the UK Cabinet Office, the government will look at how "near-miss incidents" can be identified and reported, as well as ensuring lessons can be learned quickly to reduce the risk of future harm.

"I will not accept a future in which Britain depends on technologies it cannot understand or control, while working people bear the costs of progress they had no power to shape... we must build machines that serve us," added Narayan.