MI6 chief Richard Moore says human intelligence – not AI – is future of spying

Artificial intelligence will never replace human influence in preventing terrorist attacks, the chief of the UK’s overseas spy agency MI6 will say, as Western nations debate how to respond to the emerging technology.

With AI trawling information, “some have asked whether it will put intelligence services like mine out of business? In fact, the opposite is likely to be true,” Richard Moore is due to say in a speech in Prague on Wednesday. Agents “can identify new questions we didn’t know to ask, and sometimes they can influence decisions inside a government or terrorist group,” he will say.

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His remarks come after an updated government strategy paper concluded agencies must “ruthlessly prioritize finite resources to respond to terrorism.”

A persistent threat from extremists and technological advances combined with increasingly undetectable domestic plotters, have led to a growing risk of another attack, the UK Home Office said in a report on Tuesday.

Moore is also expected to talk about Ukraine and how Russia is continuing to fail to achieve its military objectives. He will also analyze the recent wave of Russian imperialism in Africa and how countries such as Iran are only serving to fuel further conflict in Ukraine, according to his office.

On Monday, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly headed the first briefing session on artificial intelligence at the United Nations Security Council to discuss its potential implications on international peace and security.

The UK is also set to host the first international AI safety summit later this year.

Read more: Tech giants cannot guarantee AI safety: AI executive warns