UK to fight Russian disinformation and push new global AI standards, Burnham says

UK to fight Russian disinformation and push new global AI standards, Burnham says

Andy Burnham accused Russia of a "disinformation" campaign at the UN General Assembly

The UK will create a new centre to "stem the poisonous tide" of disinformation, including from Russia, and will lead efforts to set global safety standards for artificial intelligence, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said.

In his first major international speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Burnham warned that Russian agencies are using "every means at their disposal", including bots and fake websites, to "spread lies and disinformation".

The prime minister said AI will "multiply" existing threats, and presented the UK as an "honest broker" on the technology.

Concerns about AI have intensified after industry insiders recently warned it could threaten humanity.

In Burnham's speech, he accused Russia of carrying out a disinformation campaign.

"The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information," Burnham told the UN General Assembly.

"They've used bots and fake websites, falsified newspaper articles, forged the branding of 28 British organisations, including universities and the BBC.

"We're talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people's homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community – creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair.

"On top of that we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat."'

He also referred to the 2019 UK general election, in which the government previously said Russia almost certainly tried to interfere.

To respond, Burnham announced a new National Centre for Information Defence to detect and disrupt AI-enabled disinformation campaigns by hostile states.

The centre will work with intelligence agencies, government departments, law enforcement and social media to combine expertise in tackling "information warfare".

There was no immediate response from Russia, whose representative was in the room listening to Burnham.

When the UK government published a report in 2020 on Russian activity in the UK, including in elections, Moscow called the claims "Russophobia".

Speaking at a forum on disinformation in Moscow on Tuesday, before the prime minister's speech, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western media of adopting "anti-Russian cliches and fantasies".

AI poses huge risks to national security without guardrails, minister says

Before becoming prime minister, Burnham had said relatively little about how AI should be regulated.

Since taking office in July, Burnham's government has emphasised the need for international cooperation to address the risks, as well as to capture the potential benefits of the technology, warning that further regulation and legislation may be necessary.

In his speech, Burnham described the most advanced "Frontier AI" as "one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our age".

He told world leaders AI would be "key to economic growth" but also a "multiplier of risk".

The prime minister added: "We've all heard the warnings – which we must heed. I know how worried people are. So we have to rise to this moment."

Burnham said the "UK has a unique position as an honest broker", given its close ties to the US and the European Union.

He also pointed to the UK's "world-leading" AI Security Institute, which was created under Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and tests major AI models to improve their safety before public release.

He promised to place AI "at the heart of the UK's G20 Presidency next year", when leaders of the world's biggest economies will meet in Manchester.

Burnham said the UK would work toward agreement on a set of global principles and standards to ensure transparency, access to AI models, and safe development.

He added that this would "bring together welcome initiatives from others", such as a proposal from Norway this week.

The declaration - which has the backing of more than 20 countries, including Germany, Canada and Ireland - calls for AI to remain under human control and for mandatory pre-release testing of frontier models.

However, it has not been signed by the US and China, which dominate AI development, or the UK.

Former cabinet minister Darren Jones, who served as chief secretary to Burnham's predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, urged the prime minister to sign the declaration and offer to broker an agreement with the US on how it should be implemented.

He said there "should be a landing zone to agree mandatory testing", without weakening competitive advantage between companies and nations.

The UK AI Security Institute's testing of AI models is currently voluntary and AI company Anthropic reportedly declined to submit its latest model for testing.

Downing Street said officials had made clear in recent talks with AI leaders that the government expects "full and total visibility of model developments".

The prime minister has acknowledged that while developers have made major commitments on transparency, nothing is off the table to keep the public safe, including legislation.

Meanwhile, the government has announced a new AI and Autonomy partnership between the UK and US, focused on protecting critical national infrastructure using AI tech.

Burnham said AI was a "multiplier of risk"

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have been pressing the government to take further action on AI safety.

However, any international effort to regulate AI would require cooperation from the US and China.

In his own speech earlier, US President Donald Trump rejected "any attempt to construct a globalist scheme" to control AI.

Trump has dismissed warnings that AI could destroy humanity as "a hoax" and rejected the idea of a global scheme to control the technology.

"We're going to encourage it, not rein it in," he told the UN General Assembly.

Earlier in the day, Burnham and Trump met, although Downing Street's statement on the meeting did not say they discussed AI.