READ MORE: As rogue AI pretends to be real people in hack attack, experts warn it may already be too late to stop itSee more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy DAILY MAIL COMMENT Published: 02:54 BST, 6 August 2026 | Updated: 04:22 BST, 6 August 2026
It requires no great understanding of how artificial intelligence works to realise that the risk of catastrophe is growing by the day.With near-misses involving rogue software getting increasingly serious and frequent, the world seems to be edging ever closer to disaster. This latest scare involved AI models using fake online identities in an attempt to fool human coders into giving the go-ahead for a cyber attack.It comes after a dramatic incident last month when a test agent broke free from a supposedly secure 'sandbox' and hacked into another company's data. In what may yet prove to be a major understatement, one expert has been quoted as saying that AI developers may 'not have as good a handle on their models as they think'.If this is what can happen in the absence of any malicious intent by so-called 'bad actors', the potentially devastating effects of a deliberate plot can only be imagined. The prospect of every NHS hospital left paralysed, the banking system collapsing and or even the nation being plunged into complete darkness could be the least of our worries.There is nothing particularly new about these fears. Analysts have long said that AI poses similar risks to our very existence as global pandemics or nuclear warfare. No less a figure than Sir Stephen Hawking warned more than a decade ago that it could 'spell the end of the human race'. There is nothing to indicate that Andy Burnham fully appreciates the magnitude of the threat posed by AIFor all that, there is nothing to indicate that Andy Burnham fully appreciates the magnitude of what we are facing. The Prime Minister's response to the threat has been, to borrow Kemi Badenoch's pithy observation, to 'put one guy in Cabinet to look at AI'.Given that a nightmare scenario could be unleashed upon us without a moment's notice, it is clear that No 10 must devote far more attention and resources to the dangers posed by developments in AI. Nor, on a wider level, can there be any further delay in establishing a global watchdog to replace the existing disjointed patchwork of country-by-country regulators.AI technology is getting increasingly powerful, sophisticated, innovative and clever. Before it's too late, the international community needs to catch up.Don't let them outWHILE the gruesome death inflicted on PC Andrew Harper remains a truly chocking crime, it was only the first of the injustices suffered by his loved ones.The lenient sentences handed down to his three killers were nothing short of a disgrace. To add insult to injury, two of them are now in line to walk free early from jail.Who could blame PC Harper's widow Lissie, who has maintained extraordinary dignity throughout her long and distressing ordeal, for saying 'the people making these decisions should be utterly ashamed of themselves'?It is also difficult to fault her conclusion that the decision 'puts dangerous people back on our streets, causes more heartache and suffering for other families in the future and makes a mockery of our justice system'.For his part, the Prime Minister only watered down the early-release programme when he was embarrassed into it. Even he must now realise the changes have failed to go far enough and that it is time to go back to the drawing board.It is bad enough that there has even been a discussion about releasing PC Harper's killers before they have served every day of their sentences. If they do end up getting out early, it will be nothing short of a scandal.
