NEW: UK Defence AI Strategy
What do politicians and business leaders need to know?
“Realising the benefits of AI – and countering threats and challenges associated with the use of AI by others - is one of the most critical strategic challenges of our time.”
Hello,
We have another Strategy on our hands: the UK’s new Defence Artificial Intelligence Strategy. This was created to set out the Government’s view of “the strategic opportunities and challenge presented by the emergence of AI as a transformative and disruptive new technology.” Presented alongside a 15-page policy paper, this new 72 page strategy explicitly mentions China a handful of times, while nodding in Beijing’s direction on numerous occasions.
As this was developed without any clear input from Parliament, it’s therefore striking to see how many issues currently passing through the Lords and Commons appear in this Strategy. For example, hostile states’ efforts to “acquire key technologies and Intellectual Property from UK academia and Industry” is bluntly termed a “a major threat,” and there’s a tacit admission that some hostile states will be using surveillance equipment to train their AI. This could refer implicitly to technologies being utilised by the Chinese Communist Party in the ‘re-education’ camps scattered throughout Xinjiang. Both of these and many others could add ammunition to those politicians seeking to pressure the Government for movement in these areas.
Elsewhere, the paper discusses how the UK aims to shape global development of AI in line with its own goals and values. “AI will be an important area of geostrategic competition, not only as a means for technological and commercial advantage but also as a battleground for competing ideologies. We need to understand the varied terrain on which these ‘battles’ will be fought – in terms of technology, data, systems, norms – and marshal the various levers at our disposal to best effect.”
Today’s short note pulls out key quotes and themes. It is for paid subscribers only.
What’s the context?
On the world stage, many countries are creating their own AI strategies, looking to heighten any potential advantages in this space. This Ministry of Defence Strategy sits within the wider UK National AI Strategy. It is a result of the Integrated Review, the UK’s recent steering foreign policy document, itself a product of hard work and significant feedback from multiple Government departments, academics, allies and experts.