Govt asks officials to use AI with caution

Ah, marvellous. The Cabinet Division has issued a notice instructing government officials to exercise "utmost caution" while using AI tools for official work, warning that careless use could result in the "unauthorised disclosure or transfer" of sensitive and confidential government information to third parties. This is the bureaucratic equivalent of installing a speed bump after the car has already gone through the front window of the department store. One imagines a besuited mandarin staring at a leaked Cabinet paper reproduced verbatim by some chatbot and thinking: "Right, time for a strongly worded circular."

The notice is a masterpiece of misplaced responsibility, placing the entire burden on the individual official rather than on the organisations building or deploying the tools. Why should a government department implement data controls, establish approved systems, or train people in basic operational security, when a single sheet of paper can make each officer personally accountable for the fact that their AI assistant has been quietly exfiltrating confidential files to a server somewhere beyond the reach of any meaningful legal process? "Utmost caution" is not a security architecture; it is a confession that the institution has no idea what its staff are doing, but wants the paperwork to show it said something.

And the timing is exquisite. Governments everywhere are simultaneously racing to embed AI into every corner of public administration and issuing warnings that the technology might be leaking their secrets to god-knows-whom. The Cabinet Division's notice is being written in the same era as the technology's deployment, which tells you everything about the regulatory gap. Nobody is suggesting a pause, a review, or a procurement standard; just a reminder that officials should be jolly careful. There is something almost endearing about a state that believes the answer to an existential data-loss risk is a politely worded memo. Raise a glass — if we still had state secrets left to toast with.