UK to train AI on Ukraine battlefield data to protect sensitive sites
Britain and Ukraine have agreed to let UK security systems be trained on Ukrainian battlefield data to detect protesters and hostile-state threats at defence, rail and energy sites. The technology will first be piloted at a UK defence facility.
The UK and Ukrainian governments have struck a deal allowing British authorities to use battlefield data from Ukraine's Avengers AI lab to train artificial intelligence systems designed to detect protesters and hostile foreign activity around critical infrastructure. It is the first agreement of its kind in the UK, and private companies will also be able to access the data once approved by the Ministry of Defence.
The scheme will first be piloted at a UK defence site, using AI-optimised sensors built into buried fibre-optic cables that can distinguish between different types of movement. If the technology proves effective, the government hopes to extend it to airports, prisons, railways and energy infrastructure.
Security backdrop
The initiative follows an incident last June in which activists from Palestine Action breached RAF Brize Norton on scooters and spray-painted two military aircraft before leaving the site undetected. That embarrassing security lapse contributed to the group's subsequent proscription.
Pilot projects have already been approved for three British AI companies — Sintela, Mind Foundry and Skyral. Bristol-based Sintela recently signed a $35m deal with the US administration to provide surveillance along the US-Mexico border.
The partnership means new UK security systems can draw on four years of Ukrainian drone operation data, strike mission footage and flight profiles, much of it linked to Russian sabotage attempts against Ukrainian infrastructure. This dataset is described as far more extensive than the mostly open-source data such systems have previously relied on.
UK prime minister Andy Burnham said the partnership would let British companies combine their AI expertise with Ukraine's battlefield data to strengthen national security and protect infrastructure. Defence secretary Wes Streeting said Ukraine was pushing the frontier of defence innovation while resisting Russia's invasion.
Steven Murdoch, a computer science professor at University College London, was sceptical about how novel the technology itself was, noting that fibre-optic movement-detection sensors have existed for decades. However, he acknowledged Ukrainian data could be valuable for emerging threats, such as those involving drones, that other countries may face in future.
