Tom Tugendhat says AI spies to detect security threats against Britain by combing through public data

The Minister for Security announced that artificial intelligence would be used to gather intelligence to detect national security threats against Britain.

Computers will comb through unusually large amounts of information in an effort to highlight important intelligence that humans would otherwise overlook, under new plans from the Department of Defense.

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said open-source data could help identify security threats and the enemy if analysts weren’t overwhelmed by sheer volume, as lessons learned during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed.

He said a new department would be set up, the Open Source Intelligence Hub (OSINT) which would focus solely on analyzing publicly available information as well as the work of MI5 and MI6.

While “traditional espionage” is still useful, Tugendhat said, he cautioned that “intelligence has changed,” because the world today is very different from what it was a decade ago.

He said a new department would be set up, the Open Source Intelligence Hub (OSINT) which would focus solely on analyzing publicly available information as well as the work of MI5 and MI6. Pictured: the MI6 building along the bank of the River Thames in London

The minister said OSINT would add to the detail of intelligence gained through traditional espionage and be key to countering disinformation that could “tear us apart,” telegraph reports.

He wrote to the newspaper how in February last year a group of students at an American liberal arts college discovered a TikTok video showing Russian tanks outside the Russian city of Belgorod — and then noticed a series of traffic jam alerts on Google Maps on roads between the city and the Ukrainian border.

This group of students was the first to publicly announce that Russia was invading Ukraine. Since then, Tugendhat said, open-source data has given Ukrainian defenders an edge against Putin’s forces.

OSINT does not currently have a set budget, but it is currently believed plans will be put to the Prime Minister in May – after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged £3.5bn to boost British science and technology.

The government is set to publish the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence which will lay out plans to boost research and development in the growing technology sector.

Tugendhat made it clear that the unit would not be used to spy on British citizens. OSINT, he said, would not “absorb” the new information, but would instead “make sense of what is already there”.

Writing to the newspaper, he told how in February last year a group of students at an American liberal arts college discovered a TikTok video showing Russian tanks outside the Russian city of Belgorod. Pictured: Russian troops seen near the Ukrainian border on February 20

He said that before Russia invaded Ukraine, the UK should have opened up intelligence to its partners around the world, but also inside the country. But he said it had since “become clear” that classified intelligence did not need to be declassified.

The minister also said the unit would work to combat and verify disinformation spread by Russia and other malicious actors in Britain.

Lies spread, he said, seeing national security “undermined by trying to tear us apart” through the use of social media.

Similar techniques were used by commercial intelligence firm Bellingcat, which analyzed publica data to show that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17 was shot down by the Russian military in July 2014.

Mr Tugendhat hopes the new division will be able to mirror the work done by Bellingcat who have “showed why this is important”.