GCHQ has announced its plans for a new national AI cyber shield as it tries to ramp up defenses amid increasingly tenuious geopolitics.

The system will use AI agents for threat detection, aiming to protect critical national infrastructure such as airlines, telecoms, and other major industries. It is hoped the system will run within the next five years.

GCHQ chief Anne Keast-Butler announced the new system at her annual lecture at Bletchley Park, saying that AI is an “unstoppable force” that the UK must master as the world expereinces a “moment of consequence” due to looming global threats.

“In the past few months, GCHQ has developed the blueprint for a new national cyber defence capability that will hardwire cutting-edge agentic AI into machine-speed cyber defence,” she said.

“And as we draw on decades of expertise in machine learning to reimagine cyber security, we’re also embedding frontier AI deeper into our operations – responsibly and ethically – to enhance algorithms, translate foreign language, and find needles in haystacks quicker than ever before.

“AI is an unstoppable force with great opportunity. But it’s also a force with risks.

“As AI gains increased autonomy, we all have an intergenerational duty to harness and secure it for good; to protect our national security, our economy and our way of life.”

With the announcement, Keast-Butler also urged organisations and the public to take grater care with cybersecurity – “from boardrooms to living rooms.”

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She called for collaboration between the tech industry and the national security sector to “anticiapte and drive advancements, together, at the speed of the frontier,” so the UK can compete with global cyber threats.

“The AI revolution is now fully upon us – with ever faster pace of model releases, increasingly sophisticated agents and greater system autonomy – transforming the world with both promise and peril,” she said.

“That’s equally true for intelligence and security, where the latest frontier AI is rapidly unearthing the fault lines in technologies that our society relies on every single day.”

She reminded organisations that cybersecurity is a “critical priority for all businesses.”