UK Intelligence Chief Warns That China To Russia Are In Race For Artificial Intelligence: It Gives Influence

Illustration. (Unsplash/Kevin.Ku)

JAKARTA - The head of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6 warned on Tuesday that Western "enemies" such as China and Russia are racing to master artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that could revolutionize geopolitics over the next decade.

The world's spies, from Langley and London to Moscow and Beijing, are trying to grapple with advances in seismic technology that challenge the traditional human-led spy operations that have dominated for millennia.

MI6 head Richard Moore said quantum engineering, engineering biology, large data sets and advances in computer power are threats that need to be addressed by the West.

"Our adversaries are pouring money and ambition into mastering artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and synthetic biology, because they know that mastering these technologies will give them leverage," said Moore, who rarely appears for a speech citing Reuters on November 30.

Moore, a former diplomat and head of MI6 in 2020, said technological advances over the next decade could surpass all technological advances over the past century.

Chief of British Intelligence MI6 Richard Moore. (Wikimedia Commons/UK Government)

"As a society, we have not internalized this real fact and its potential impact on global geopolitics. But it is a hot focus for MI6," he said.

Of particular interest to Western spies are Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies rushing to harness the power of advanced technologies, sometimes faster than in the West.

Western intelligence agencies fear Beijing could within a few decades dominate all major emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and genetics.

Moore said services must change to take advantage of new technologies.

"We can't expect to emulate the global technology industry, so we have to take advantage of it. We have to be more open, to keep it secret," said Moore.

To note, China's economic and military rise over the past 40 years is considered one of the most significant geopolitical events of recent times, alongside the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union that ended the Cold War.

Meanwhile, MI6 is described by novelists as the agency of some of the most memorable fictional spies, from John le Carré's George Smiley to Ian Fleming's James Bond, operating overseas and tasked with defending Britain and its interests.