The GCHQ unveiled a paper on how it will use AI to help protect the U.K.

GCHQ, the U.K.’s intelligence agency, published today a paper titled Ethics of AI: Pioneering a New National Security to explain how it intends to use AI responsibly to keep the country safe from various kinds of threats. (BBC News)

Problem-solving at scale and speed

GCHQ will deploy AI to enable problem-solving at scale and speed to tackle issues such as:

• Fact-checking and detecting deepfake media to tackle foreign state disinformation;
• Mapping international networks that enable human, drugs, and weapons trafficking;
• Analyzing chat rooms for evidence of grooming to prevent child sexual abuse; and
• How the National Cyber Security Centre could analyze activity at scale to identify malicious software to protect the UK from cyber-attacks.

Furthermore, GCHQ will establish an AI ethical code of practice alongside the above security and protection measures. That would ensure its analysts use AI fairly and transparently, “applying existing tests of necessity and proportionality.”

This undertaking from GCHQ is relevant in the context of the flak the agency has faced for the collection of data on the public, as revealed by Edward Snowden, a former contractor at the US National Security Agency.

GCHQ also said it would recruit more diverse talent, and that it would protect privacy and strive for systematic fairness.

Are China and Russia already weaponizing AI?

According to the FT, the GCHQ’s thrust on AI is not a day too soon because the U.K.’s adversaries such as Russia and China are allegedly already weaponizing AI technology against Britain and its allies.

Furthermore, the concern is that these actors would not be bound to use AI ethically.

“The UK government’s requirement to develop AI capabilities is all the more pressing in the context of emerging AI-enabled security threats from hostile state actors — most notably Russia and China,” said Alexander Babuta, a research fellow in national security at the Royal United Services Institute to the FT.

Jeremy Fleming, Director GCHQ said on AI: “While this unprecedented technological evolution comes with a great opportunity, it also poses significant ethical challenges for all of society, including GCHQ. Today we are setting out our plan and commitment to the ethical use of AI in our mission.”

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Image Credit: GCHQ’s premises in Cheltenham, UK. Affectionately known as the Doughnut.