Is AI a national security threat?

Katie Prescott (0:02)

Danny, hello.

Danny Fortson (0:03)

Hello.

Katie Prescott (0:04)

Can I ask you a question?

Danny Fortson (0:05)

Of course you can.

Katie Prescott (0:06)

When you go to the pub, what do you drink? Or like in, or a bar, I guess, you don't really have pubs, do you?

Danny Fortson (0:12)

I mean, I know what a pub is. You don't have to translate to American.

Katie Prescott (0:16)

But like, when you're with your mates?

Danny Fortson (0:18)

I like Old Speckled Hen. You know, I like a good ale, especially when I'm in the UK.

Katie Prescott (0:23)

I was gonna say, can you get that in America?

Danny Fortson (0:25)

Here and there, it's kind of hard to find. Usually, it's like Miller Lite or something like that, which is not very good.

Katie Prescott (0:32)

The reason I ask is, there's been a lot of hilarity over here in the UK, as you can imagine, with Mark Zuckerberg being filmed drinking a Guinness. So swilling it around his mouth rather awkwardly.

Danny Fortson (0:44)

Looks like he's chewing it. Yeah.

Katie Prescott (0:46)

Pulling a bit of a face at the bitter taste.

Danny Fortson (0:49)

Yeah, so there's this, the Collison brothers, the guys who founded Stripe, they have their podcast called Cheeky Point, and they've mocked up like a pub set up, I think in their headquarters. And then they have all the great and the good come through, like, you know, Elon Musk and I don't know if Bill Gates has been there, but like.

Katie Prescott (1:05)

And they are Irish, right? And this is also important.

Danny Fortson (1:07)

Yes, they are Irish, correct, correct. And then the whole, the pod is, you know, they have a Cheeky Point.

Katie Prescott (1:13)

Cheeky Point.

Danny Fortson (1:13)

With a tech leader, a billionaire, whomever, and talking about what's happening. And Zuckerberg was on there with Alexander Wang, who's the founder of Scale, who then he brought in to kind of overhaul their whole AI effort. And it was funny because they're talking to Alexander Wang. And then in the background, you see Mark Zuckerberg like to hand his Guinness. And he's just like, and then he has a swig. And then he's like, like, like he looks like a cow chewing it's cud, you know, where you're like, what is, what are you doing?

Katie Prescott (1:44)

Right. My question to you then is, is this because Guinness is not much drunk where you're from, is he unfamiliar with it? Or is this a Mark Zuckerberg weirdness?

Danny Fortson (1:53)

I think it's both, you know, cause he does brew his own beer apparently on his compound in Hawaii.

Katie Prescott (1:59)

I went to the Guinness factory in Dublin.

Danny Fortson (2:01)

Did you chew it?

Katie Prescott (2:02)

I didn't. I mean, I'm not a natural Guinness drinker, but I know, I know how to drink a pint in a pub without looking like a weirdo.

Danny Fortson (2:10)

We all have our skills. We all have our skills. Oh goodness. Well, anyway, should we get to the pod?

Katie Prescott (2:16)

Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Times Tech, where we unpack how technology is reshaping our everyday lives. I'm Katie Prescott.

Danny Fortson (2:26)

And I am Danny Fortson. And this week, we are talking about, can you believe we're talking about AI this week?

Katie Prescott (2:32)

I think we should have a ban one week. Just try and talk about something else, anything else.

Danny Fortson (2:37)

But we're talking about how AI is impacting national security because a few things have happened.

Katie Prescott (2:44)

Oh, it's been such a hot topic over here. Feels like all of the red lights are flashing over it. So this week, MI5 has warned that AI is supercharging security threats to the UK.

Meanwhile, Britain's AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, has said it's inevitable Britain's going to be hacked by rogue AI agents. And plus, there's this extraordinary news of a hidden recording device inside OpenAI.

Danny Fortson (3:09)

Yeah, a sophisticated recording device that was quote unquote planted inside the premises. And they said they have notified the FBI who are investigating. And this all, of course, comes at a very interesting time with questions around security and the AI arms race with China. And in the last few days, Jacob Coxon, remember him, the former anthropic researcher who left, tweeted about his worries for the future of the human race.

And he's raised alarms now about the possibility of spies inside both Anthropic and OpenAI.

Katie Prescott (3:44)

Yes, the man from Anthropic who said that AI could kill us all. But just when you thought AI was going to wipe us all out and take all our jobs, never fear. There is heartening news, as reported by The Times this week, from Anthropic. Anthropic is hiring a PA, a personal assistant, for a salary of £145,000 a year. They're going to do jobs like managing calendars and monitoring inboxes. So all of the things that My Instinct Agent does.