AI models trained on Ukrainian battlefield data will be used to stop protesters and foreign states targeting UK defence sites, railways and energy plants under a deal struck between London and Kyiv.
Private companies will also be given access to the vast trove of data from Ukraine’s Avengers AI lab to help build new systems, the first agreement of its kind in the UK.
The scheme will be piloted at a UK defence site, building a model to identify protesters or a hostile-state attack. It uses AI-optimised sensors in buried fibre-optic cables to detect different kinds of movement.
The government has suggested the technology, if proven workable, could be used at airports, prisons, railways and energy infrastructure.
The controversial proscription of the activist group Palestine Action was sparked after the group breached RAF Brize Norton on scooters last June, a highly embarrassing security lapse as a result of which the group was able to deface two military aircraft with spray paint before escaping the site without being detained.
Palestine Action said at the time that it had targeted RAF Voyager aircraft used for transport and refuelling, and that “activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East”.
Private companies will be able to access the data once approved by the MoD on a secure platform, though the data sharing is likely to raise alarm among privacy campaigners.
Pilot projects have already been approved with three British AI companies – Sintela, Mind Foundry and Skyral. Sintela, a Bristol-based company that specialises in fibre-optic sensors, recently struck a $35m (£26m) deal with the Trump administration to provide surveillance on the US-Mexico border.
The partnership with the Ukrainian AI lab means new UK security systems can be trained on operational drone datasets, strike mission footage and flight profiles, likely to include Russian sabotage attempts against critical Ukrainian infrastructure.
The cache of four years’ worth of military data contains a far deeper picture than models outside Ukraine have previously been trained on, which had been mostly restricted to open-source data.
The government eventually hopes to use the AI models to predict quickly when infrastructure such as railways, the power grid or military bases might be coming under threat or stress from hostile actors.
That would primarily come from the laying of fibre-optic cables that are able to identify unique movements of people or vehicles around sensitive sites. Ministry of Defence sources said that would specifically include when a site might be targeted by protesters – not just hostile states.
The prime minister, Andy Burnham, said it would be an opportunity for British companies to combine their AI expertise with Ukraine’s battlefield data, which would “accelerate the development of capabilities that not only strengthen our national security but better protect our critical infrastructure and growth in every postcode here at home”.
Other potential projects could include new AI chips to power drones, robotics and automated weapons systems.
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Steven Murdoch, a professor of computer science at University College London, said technologies to detect movement from sensors in fibre-optic cables had been around for decades and that it was unclear if data from Ukraine would refine their capabilities.
“I haven’t heard anything that is very convincing, but there is a plausible scenario where they could see something that could be predicted easily and isn’t in any publicly known dataset,” he said.
Ukraine, however, has a lot of other data that may be valuable, especially related to new threats that countries in western Europe might face in the short to medium term.
“What’s valuable is something we’re seeing today which other countries will be worrying about in the future,” Murdoch said. “Anything to do with drones, for example.”
The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said Ukraine was “pushing the frontier of defence innovation as they bravely resist Putin’s illegal invasion”.
“By combining the UK’s world-leading scientists, engineers and tech companies with Ukraine’s unique battlefield experience and data, we will strengthen both of our nations’ defence and security,” he said.
