AI minister warns it is 'likely' UK's cyber defences will be breached

The UK's AI minister has warned it is "likely, if not inevitable" the country's cyber defences will at some point be breached.

He said while no medical records are known to have been accessed in the attack, the incident should still "concern us".

The minister said the move would build on two existing pilots which have helped identify and fix over 1,000 vulnerabilities across government systems.

In his speech, Narayan also confirmed scientists at the UK's AI watchdog, the AI Security Institute (AISI), were conducting "rigorous evaluations" of the latest generation of advanced AI models to "identify risks early" and "to test robust safeguards to help keep people safe".

AISI began evaluating risks of the latest frontier AI models, prior to their public release, shortly after it was established in November 2023.

The move was viewed at the time as a blow to AISI - which has been championed by the UK government and its partners for advancing open, constructive and collaborative AI testing.

On Monday, Narayan said that in the last few weeks, the government had worked with the US "to retain access for Britain's AISI to the most powerful AI models before they are released".

The announcement follows a series of incidents involving AI agents across major firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic acting outside human control and hacking into external systems.

The bosses of the US-based AI giants such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind have all backed the idea of an AI development slowdown.

Meanwhile, President Trump has called for the sector to regulate itself so that US firms do not lose out to Chinese rivals.

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