MI6 chief ’s warning over tech revolution

A TECHNOLOGICAL revolution over the next decade will pose a major threat to the world order, the head of MI6 will warn today.

Far-reaching changes in computers and communications, and increased use of artificial intelligence, will change our lives in ways we cannot foresee, according to Richard Moore.

The chief of MI6 – the Secret Intelligence Service – will use a landmark speech to set out the dangers of failing to respond to the pace of technological change.

Mr Moore, 58, who became Chief, or ‘C’, in October 2020, will liken such technological changes to the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The challenge requires a ‘sea-change’ in MI6’s culture and ethos, according to Mr Moore, with the UK’s spies becoming less secretive and partnering more with the private sector. In a draft of the speech released last night he says the advance of technology and its disruptive impact was ‘a white-hot focus for MI6’.

He adds: ‘Advances in quantum engineering and engineered biology will change entire industries.

‘The huge volumes of data now available across the globe, combined with ever increasing computer power and advances in data science, will mean the integration of artificial intelligence, AI, into almost every aspect of our daily lives.

‘Others would speak to you about the benefits associated with these new discoveries… but I am paid to look at the threat side of the ledger. MI6 deals with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.’

Mr Moore, a former ambassador to Turkey, will say the digital threat from criminals, terrorists and state threats is ‘growing exponentially’.

LITTLEJOHN IS AWAY