Burnham announces National Centre for Information Defence, pitches AI standards

Russia accused of running £1.3 billion annual disinformation operation

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first major international speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday to announce a new National Centre for Information Defence against hostile-state disinformation and to pitch the United Kingdom as an “honest broker” on global artificial intelligence standards. He accused Russia of spending £1.3 billion a year on an operation that uses bots, fake websites and the forged branding of 28 British organisations to manipulate British audiences.

Burnham used the address to pair the fight against hostile-state disinformation with the governance of frontier AI, arguing AI will “multiply” existing threats. The speech laid out the policy priorities his government has stressed since taking office in July. It came on a day when US President Donald Trump, in his own General Assembly address, dismissed AI-risk warnings as “a hoax” and rejected “any attempt to construct a globalist scheme” to control the technology. Fears about AI have grown after industry insiders recently warned it could threaten humanity.

The new UK centre will work with intelligence agencies, government departments, law enforcement and social media firms to detect and disrupt AI-enabled disinformation campaigns by hostile states. Its remit, Burnham said, is to combat “information warfare.”

“The Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information,” Burnham told delegates. “They’ve used bots and fake websites, falsified newspaper articles, forged the branding of 28 British organisations, including universities and the BBC.”

The Russian operation’s aim, Burnham said, is to corrode British public life. “We’re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people’s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community – creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair.” He noted the UK government had previously said Russia “almost certainly” sought to interfere in the 2019 general election. “On top of that we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat,” he said.

Russia did not immediately respond; a representative was in the General Assembly hall while Burnham spoke. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, addressing a disinformation forum in Moscow earlier on Tuesday before the prime minister’s speech, accused Western media of embracing “anti-Russian cliches and fantasies.” When the UK government put out a report in 2020 about Russian activity in the UK, including in elections, Moscow described the allegations as “Russophobia.”

On artificial intelligence, Burnham described the most advanced “Frontier AI” as “one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our age” — “key to economic growth” but also a “multiplier of risk.” “We’ve all heard the warnings – which we must heed. I know how worried people are. So we have to rise to this moment,” he told the General Assembly. Before becoming prime minister, Burnham had said relatively little about how AI should be regulated. Since taking power in July, his government has stressed the need for international cooperation to combat the risks and harness the potential benefits of the technology, warning that further regulation and legislation may be needed.

The prime minister said the UK had “a unique position as an honest broker”, with close ties to the United States and the European Union, and he pledged to put AI “at the heart of the UK’s G20 Presidency next year”, when leaders of the world’s biggest economies will gather in Manchester.

Burnham pointed to the UK AI Security Institute, established under former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which tests major AI models to improve their safety before they are released publicly. The UK AI Security Institute’s testing of AI models is currently on a voluntary basis, and AI company Anthropic reportedly refused to submit its latest model for testing. Downing Street said officials had made clear in recent discussions with AI leaders that the government expects “full and total visibility of model developments”. The prime minister has acknowledged that while developers have made significant commitments on transparency, nothing is off the table to keep the public safe, including legislation.

Burnham said the UK would work towards agreeing a set of global principles and standards to ensure transparency, access to AI models, and that development happens safely, and would “bring together welcome initiatives from others”, such as a declaration Norway proposed this week. The declaration — which has the support of more than 20 countries, including Germany, Canada and Ireland — calls for AI to remain under human control and for mandatory pre-release testing of frontier models. However, it has not been signed by the United States and China, which dominate AI development, or the United Kingdom.

Pressure on the government has built from multiple directions. Former cabinet minister Darren Jones, who served as chief secretary to Burnham’s predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, called on the prime minister to sign the declaration and offer to broker an agreement with the US on its implementation. He argued there “should be a landing zone to agree mandatory testing”, without undermining competitive advantage between companies and nations. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party have separately been putting pressure on the government to take further action on AI safety.

Burnham’s government has announced a new AI and Autonomy partnership between the UK and US, focused on protecting critical national infrastructure using AI tech.

In his address earlier Tuesday, Trump told the General Assembly the United States would not join any coordinated effort to govern AI. “We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in,” he said.

Burnham and Trump met in New York before the prime minister’s speech; Downing Street’s statement on the meeting did not mention AI. Any international efforts to regulate AI would, however, need the cooperation of the United States and China — both of which dominate AI development and have not signed the Norwegian declaration.