"With a deeper focus on the right talent, training and technology, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, it [the new department] would add another powerful string to our bow," Tugendhat said in a letter published by The Telegraph late on Thursday.
The security minister also said that the monitoring of user-uploaded information online, combined with secret intelligence and AI-based technologies, would provide for "spotting a crucial troop movement" and detecting an enemy maneuver, as well as "catching a foreign agent," the newspaper reported.
Last week, the UK announced its ambition to become one of a global technology superpower by 2030 while countering what it sees as rivals’ malign influences. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the International Technology Strategy identified the areas that the UK believes would shape the coming decades, including artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, semiconductors, telecom, and engineering biology. It hopes to draw on national resources in the industry, finance, academia and civil society to advance the tech sector.