UK Spy Agencies Turn to Quantum Computing & AI in ‘Fourth-Generation Espionage’

(TechCentral) The UK’s security services are adopting, and responding to, modern technology. The UK government’s latest counter-terrorism strategy states that developments in artificial intelligence will “allow us to filter and identify crucial information faster than ever”, adding that the power of quantum computing can be combined with AI to improve the speed at which large data sets can be sorted and mined for key information. Data analysis capabilities are seen as particularly important for monitoring more than 20 000 former MI5 “subjects of interest” who are not under active investigation.
The UK launched the National Cyber Security Centre in 2016 to spearhead efforts to counter the threat to the country’s infrastructure from criminal hackers and hostile states. The head of Britain’s MI6, Alex Younger, says there is a need for “fourth-generation espionage” as adversaries take advantage of “blurred lines” between the cyber and physical worlds.