Five Eyes Intelligence Leaders Discuss Protecting Emerging Tech With Industry, Academics

Intelligence officials from U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand met with industry officials and academics this week to discuss ways to improve security guardrails around emerging technologies, said the FBI, which organized the meetings. The talks included officials from each of the Five Eyes countries and were held near Silicon Valley as part of the first Emerging Technology and Securing Innovation Security Summit, which the FBI said will help government and industry discuss threats to innovation and coming trends in the use and exploitation of emerging technology, and find “means to work together to advance both economic security and public safety.”

The summit included “in-depth discussions” between government intelligence officials and business representatives to find ways to “better protect innovation and the collective security of the five nations and their citizens,” the FBI said. FBI Director Christopher Wray called emerging technologies “essential to our economic and national security,” adding that the U.S. is committed to protecting these technologies “both from those who would steal them and those who would exploit them for malicious purposes."

Other government intelligence leaders stressed the importance of protecting technologies, including MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, who said the U.K. is seeing a “sharp rise in aggressive attempts by other states to steal competitive advantage.” He said states that “lead the way in areas like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and synthetic biology will have the power to shape all our futures.”