Robots run by artificial intelligence have the potential to attack the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) and cause a disruption on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a cybersecurity expert. Ian Hogarth, who works on the U.K.’s AI task force that was formed to help protect against the risks of AI, says that the growing technology is capable of an attack that could cripple the country’s NHS or even carry out a “biological attack,” according to a report in the Daily Star. Hogarth noted that AI technology continues to improve at a rapid pace, something he warned would lower barriers to “perpetrating some kind of cyber attack or cyber crime.” Hogarth’s AI task force has received £100 million, roughly $124 million, in government funding, according to the Daily Star report, with the group’s work so far focusing on safety research that could help develop useful tools similar to ChatGPT. The U.K. “AI tsar” said it Is important for countries around the world to collaborate on mitigating the risks of AI. Hogarth specifically noted that it was also important to include countries like China in those discussions, something that has become even more critical after the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s just like pandemics. It’s the sort of thing where you can’t go it alone,” Hogarth said. “The kind of risks we are paying most attention to are augmented national security risks.”

Full report : AI robots capable of carrying out attack on NHS that would cause COVID-like disruption, expert warns.