aceThe power of AI is worrying senior Labour figures – as is the fear of ‘falling behind the public’
“I have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about,” said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare. It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham’s takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader. But a number of senior Labour figures were privately starting to name the power of AI as the thing worrying them most, alongside the immediate pressures on the cost of living and fragile economy. One cabinet ministe…
UK officials and experts warn that AI could enable attacks on the state and bioweapon threats, and that open-source models may already be powerful enough to cause serious harm without effective safeguards.
Experts disagree on which risks are real, and the source notes a gap between designing dangerous pathogens and weaponising them. It also reports that some of the concern is private, so the threat level is partly asserted rather than measured.
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- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-17
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1708, v1: “The power of AI is worrying senior Labour figures – as is the fear of ‘falling behind the public’.” Truvace, 2026-10-17. /record/TRV-2026-1708 (accessed at citation time). sha256 8a179d3445ec888f…
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