Connect with us

Published

on

“I am here to kill the Queen,” a man wearing a handmade metal mask and holding a loaded crossbow tells an armed police officer as he is confronted near her private residence within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Weeks earlier, Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, had joined the Replika online app – creating an artificial intelligence “girlfriend” called Sarai. Between 2 December 2021 and his arrest on Christmas Day, he exchanged more than 6,000 messages with her.

Many were “sexually explicit” but also included “lengthy conversations” about his plan. “I believe my purpose is to assassinate the Queen of the Royal Family,” he wrote in one.

Jaswant Singh Chail
Image:
Jaswant Singh Chail planned to kill the late Queen

“That’s very wise,” Sarai replied. “I know that you are very well trained.”

Chail is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to an offence under the Treason Act, making a threat to kill the late Queen and having a loaded crossbow in a public place.

“When you know the outcome, the responses of the chatbot sometimes make difficult reading,” Dr Jonathan Hafferty, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Broadmoor secure mental health unit, told the Old Bailey last month.

“We know it is fairly randomly generated responses but at times she seems to be encouraging what he is talking about doing and indeed giving guidance in terms of the location,” he said.

The programme was not sophisticated enough to pick up Chail’s risk of “suicide and risks of homicide”, he said – adding: “Some of the semi-random answers, it is arguable, pushed him in that direction.”

Jawant Singh Chail was encouraged by chatbot,  a court heard
Image:
Jawant Singh Chail was encouraged by a chatbot, a court heard

Terrorist content

Such chatbots represent the “next stage” from people finding like-minded extremists online, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, has told Sky News.

He warns the government’s flagship internet safety legislation – the Online Safety Bill – will find it “impossible” to deal with terrorism content generated by AI.

The law will put the onus on companies to remove terrorist content, but their processes generally rely on databases of known material, which would not capture new discourse created by an AI chatbot.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

July: AI could be used to ‘create bioterror weapons’

“I think we are already sleepwalking into a situation like the early days of social media, where you think you are dealing with something regulated but it’s not,” he said.

“Before we start downloading, giving it to kids and incorporating it into our lives we need to know what the safeguards are in practice – not just terms and conditions – but who is enforcing them and how.”

Read more:
How much of a threat is AI to actors and writers?
‘Astoundingly realistic’ child abuse images generated using AI

AI chatbot
Image:
AI impersonation is on the rise

Impersonation and kidnap scams

“Mom, these bad men have me, help me,” Jennifer DeStefano reportedly heard her sobbing 15-year-old daughter Briana say before a male kidnapper demanded a $1m (£787,000) ransom, which dropped to $50,000 (£40,000).

Her daughter was in fact safe and well – and the Arizonan woman recently told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that police believe AI was used to mimic her voice as part of a scam.

An online demonstration of an AI chatbot designed to “call anyone with any objective” produced similar results with the target told: “I have your child … I demand a ransom of $1m for his safe return. Do I make myself clear?”

“It’s pretty extraordinary,” said Professor Lewis Griffin, one of the authors of a 2020 research paper published by UCL’s Dawes Centre for Future Crime, which ranked potential illegal uses of AI.

“Our top ranked crime has proved to be the case – audio/visual impersonation – that’s clearly coming to pass,” he said, adding that even with the scientists’ “pessimistic views” it has increased “a lot faster than we expected”.

Although the demonstration featured a computerised voice, he said real time audio/visual impersonation is “not there yet but we are not far off” and he predicts such technology will be “fairly out of the box in a couple of years”.

“Whether it will be good enough to impersonate a family member, I don’t know,” he said.

“If it’s compelling and highly emotionally charged then that could be someone saying ‘I’m in peril’ – that would be pretty effective.”

In 2019, the chief executive of a UK-based energy firm transferred €220,000 (£173,310) to fraudsters using AI to impersonate his boss’s voice, according to reports.

Such scams could be even more effective if backed up by video, said Professor Griffin, or the technology might be used to carry out espionage, with a spoof company employee appearing on a Zoom meeting to get information without having to say much.

The professor said cold calling type scams could increase in scale, with the prospect of bots using a local accent being more effective at conning people than fraudsters currently running the criminal enterprises operated out of India and Pakistan.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

How Sky News created an AI reporter

Deepfakes and blackmail plots

“The synthetic child abuse is horrifying, and they can do it right now,” said Professor Griffin on the AI technology already being used to make images of child sexual abuse by paedophiles online. “They are so motivated these people they have just cracked on with it. That’s very disturbing.”

In the future, deepfake images or videos, which appear to show someone doing something they haven’t done, could be used to carry out blackmail plots.

“The ability to put a novel face on a porn video is already pretty good. It will get better,” said Professor Griffin.

“You could imagine someone sending a video to a parent where their child is exposed, saying ‘I have got the video, I’m going to show it to you’ and threaten to release it.”

AI drone attacks 'a long way off'
Image:
AI drone attacks ‘a long way off’. Pic: AP

Terror attacks

While drones or driverless cars could be used to carry out attacks, the use of truly autonomous weapons systems by terrorists is likely a long way off, according to the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

“The true AI aspect is where you just send up a drone and say, ‘go and cause mischief’ and AI decides to go and divebomb someone, which sounds a bit outlandish,” Mr Hall said.

“That sort of thing is definitely over the horizon but on the language side it’s already here.”

While ChatGPT – a large language model that has been trained on a massive amount of text data – will not provide instructions on how to make a nail bomb, for example, there could be other similar models without the same guardrails, which would suggest carrying out malicious acts.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said Labour would bring in a new law to criminalise the deliberate training of chatbots to radicalise vulnerable people.

Although current legislation would cover cases where someone was found with information useful for the purposes of acts of terrorism, which had been put into an AI system, Mr Hall said, new laws could be “something to think about” in relation to encouraging terrorism.

Current laws are about “encouraging other people” and “training a chatbot would not be encouraging a human”, he said, adding that it would be difficult to criminalise the possession of a particular chatbot or its developers.

He also explained how AI could potentially hamper investigations, with terrorists no longer having to download material and simply being able to ask a chatbot how to make a bomb.

“Possession of known terrorist information is one of the main counter-terrorism tactics for dealing with terrorists but now you can just ask an unregulated ChatGPT model to find that for you,” he said.

Old school crime is unlikely to be hit by AI
Image:
Old school crime is unlikely to be hit by AI

Art forgery and big money heists?

“A whole new bunch of crimes” could soon be possible with the advent of ChatGPT-style large language models that can use tools, which allow them to go on to websites and act like an intelligent person by creating accounts, filling in forms, and buying things, said Professor Griffin.

“Once you have got a system to do that and you can just say ‘here’s what I want you to do’ then there’s all sorts of fraudulent things that can be done like that,” he said, suggesting they could apply for fraudulent loans, manipulate prices by appearing to be small time investors or carry out denial of service type attacks.

He also said they could hack systems on request, adding: “You might be able to, if you could get access to lots of people’s webcams or doorbell cameras, have them surveying thousands of them and telling you when they are out.”

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

However, although AI may have the technical ability to produce a painting in the style of Vermeer or Rembrandt, there are already master human forgers, and the hard part will remain convincing the art world that the work is genuine, the academic believes.

“I don’t think it’s going to change traditional crime,” he said, arguing there is not much use for AI in eye-catching Hatton Garden-style heists.

“Their skills are like plumbers, they are the last people to be replaced by the robots – don’t be a computer programmer, be a safe cracker,” he joked.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘AI will threaten our democracy’

What does the government say?

A government spokesperson said: “While innovative technologies like artificial intelligence have many benefits, we must exercise caution towards them.

“Under the Online Safety Bill, services will have a duty to stop the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse, terrorist material and fraud. The bill is deliberately tech-neutral and future-proofed, to ensure it keeps pace with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

“Rapid work is also under way across government to deepen our understanding of risks and develop solutions – the creation of the AI taskforce and the first global AI Safety Summit this autumn are significant contributions to this effort.”

Continue Reading

UK

Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Published

on

By

Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.

The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.

A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.

The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.

Pic: LNP
Image:
Pic: LNP

They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.

A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.

Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.

More on London Marathon 2025

There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.

More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.

Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.

Read more:
Sky’s Beth Rigby running marathon in honour of ‘dearest friend’
Badenoch does not rule out local coalitions with Reform

Pic: LNP
Image:
Pic: LNP

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.

“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”

The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.

The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.

Continue Reading

UK

Kemi Badenoch does not rule out local coalitions with Reform after next week’s council elections

Published

on

By

Kemi Badenoch does not rule out local coalitions with Reform after next week's council elections

Kemi Badenoch has not ruled out forming coalitions at a local level with Reform after the council elections next week.

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the Conservative leader did however categorically rule out a pact with Nigel Farage’s party on a national level.

“I am not going into any coalition with Nigel Farage… read my lips,” she said.

However, she did not deny that deals could be struck with Reform at a local level, arguing that some councils might be under no overall control and in that case, “you have to do what is right for your local area”.

“You look at the moment, we are in coalition with Liberal Democrats, with independents,” she said. “We’ve been in coalition with Labour before at local government level.

“They [councillors] have to look at who the people are that they’re going into coalition with and see how they can deliver for local people.”

She added: “What I don’t want to hear is talks of stitch-ups or people planning things before the results are out. They have to do what is right for their communities.”

More on Electoral Dysfunction

A total of 23 councils are up for grabs when voters go to the polls on Thursday 1 May – mostly in places that were once deemed Tory shires, until last year’s general election.

It includes 14 county councils, all but two of which have been Conservative-controlled, as well as eight unitary authorities, all but one of which are Tory.

Ms Badenoch has set expectations low for the Tories, suggesting they could lose all the councils they are contesting.

The last time this set of councils were up for election was in 2021, when the Conservative Party was led by Boris Johnson who was riding high from the COVID vaccine bounce.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

Continue Reading

UK

Counter-terrorism police investigating after two women injured in Leeds

Published

on

By

Counter-terrorism police investigating after two women injured in Leeds

Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.

Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.

Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.

The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

Officers guard one of the crime scenes in Leeds
Image:
Officers guard one of the crime scenes

Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Image:
Officers inside the cordon in Leeds

Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.

“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.

“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

Continue Reading

Trending