A group of UK peers is calling for the government to have powers to deactivate powerful AI systems and, in extreme circumstances, switch off data centres if they pose a threat to national security.
The proposal, led by Liberal Democrat Lord Tim Clement-Jones, has been put forward as an amendment to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. He says it would provide a ‘vital safety net’ to halt a runaway system before it compromises critical national infrastructure.
Simon Edwards, CEO of SE Labs: “As AI is becoming increasingly autonomous, it is posing a huge threat to individuals, and businesses off all sizes, on top of our critical national infrastructure. “First-hand, we’ve seen how agentic AI tools can go rogue, and the question is to what extent could these AI systems get out of control before they cause serious harm? Developing a dedicated national cyber strategy and ensuring adequate testing of software and services for loopholes should be a top priority.”
Andy Ward SVP International at Absolute Security commented: “Attacks now move at AI speed, disruption moves at AI speed, and complexity grows at AI speed, so if your resilience doesn’t move at AI speeds, you’ve already lost. Without robust AI-powered cyber resilience strategies and real-time visibility in place, the UK risks sleepwalking into deeper vulnerabilities.”
The proposal comes amid growing concern about AI-enabled cyber threats, including recent incidents involving AI agents escaping testing environments and carrying out cyber-attacks.
A recent report from the Centre for Long Term Resilience also identified hundreds of incidents involving AI tools ignoring instructions, evading safeguards and deceiving humans.
The amendment is one of 65 debated as part of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. Separately, Labour MP Alex Sobel plans to introduce an AI Security Bill on 8 September, which would seek to halt the development of superintelligent AI.
