The future of humanity hinges on how the West defends itself from cyber-attacks from Russia and China, the Conservative MP Bob Seely has claimed.
He was speaking after reports claiming that China and Russia have been trying to destabilise the UK by spreading disinformation and targeting individuals and sensitive information.
Seely told GB News: “We have to defend our own information and we have to be much more robust in our approach to China.
“There are two visions of the future of the world. There is effectively the Russia and Chinese vision, which is AI and big data will [mean] that murdering thugs will make revolutions against the state impossible.
“We want a future where AI and big data are used to fulfil and enable human life, but not to oppress humanity and not to oppress freedom of thought.”
In a discussion with Bev Turner and Andrew Pierce, he said people are being targeted by hostile states for different reasons.
”A politician, it could be to influence them to take a more benign line to China, somebody's working in an Artificial Intelligence laboratory in Cambridge because you want to approach them maybe, or you're building up a profile of them. You need the basic information.
“In future, it's about AI and big data. So information, who controls information controls the future, that's the Chinese approach.”
He added: “My frustration with this Government, which I support for the most part, it’s doing really important, good work - we don't have a coherent and consistent approach to China.
“We have to have that. People when they say we can't shut ourselves off to China, they're right. We can't, but we can be much more robust about putting down our own markers like the Australians do, and they still do big trade with China.
“We can do much more to protect ourselves…you don't allow the Chinese to buy AI and big data. You do allow them to invest in less sensitive technology and there is nothing wrong with that.”
WATCH CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
