To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment they have made of the potential (a) threats and (b) opportunities of artificial intelligence in respect of their Department’s responsibilities.
Answered on
21 June 2021
As critical enabling technologies AI and Autonomy will be essential to defence modernisation enabling our Armed Forces to gain increased range, persistence and mass; better, quicker decision making; and a more effective allocation of resources. It is imperative that we move quickly to secure the benefits of these transformative technologies, and we will publish an AI Strategy later this year (including an ethical framework for the responsible use of AI in Defence) to drive and cohere efforts.
We are also closely monitoring AI-related threats - whether those posed by the capabilities which our adversaries are developing or threats to the operation of our own AI systems, which must be addressed if we are to ensure safe and responsible use of this technology. The new Defence AI Centre will serve as the nucleus to accelerate UK Defence development and exploitation of these technologies, testing and validating new and novel AI capabilities and delivering scalable solutions to meet threats.