Artificial intelligence poses an “unprecedented” threat as foreign governments turn it loose to hack computer networks and critical infrastructure, Australia’s cyber security agency warned on Tuesday.

The Australian Signals Directorate said rapidly advancing artificial intelligence models could be of huge benefit if harnessed for good, even using some AI tools to compile its own annual “cyber threat” report.

But recent months had also shown how AI was helping criminals and state-sponsored hackers launch attacks at “greater scale than ever before”, the directorate said in the report.

“AI has been the defining force in the cyber threat landscape over the past year, allowing malicious actors to find vulnerabilities faster and exploit them at unprecedented scale, speed and sophistication,” the report read. “In recent weeks, new threats have emerged from the unintended actions of AI agents and model testing.”

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Global worries about the power of advanced AI tools are mounting after a string of hacking incidents involving models from leading developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

The report documented a stark increase in cyber security incidents. The Australian Signals Directorate issued more than 4,400 warnings about potentially malicious activity over the past year — an 80% increase compared to the prior 12 months. “State-sponsored cyber actors continued to target Australian organisations primarily to gain access to sensitive or non-public information.”

“This activity extends beyond government networks, and includes critical infrastructure entities, private businesses and individuals.”

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The report said hackers linked to China, Russia and North Korea had targeted Australia or its allies in recent times.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the nation could not ignore the AI revolution. “AI is here and it’s real. People need to engage,” he told reporters. “There’s no turning the clock back in relation to that. Malicious actors are using AI to find vulnerabilities in systems.”

Marles urged Australians to update their computers and “harden their systems”.

Governments and firms have in recent days been rushing to fix critical flaws in a programming language that runs a large share of the world’s websites. The vulnerability was found using a powerful model from OpenAI.