HM Government Communications Centre (HMGCC) has launched a challenge for the use of machine learning and AI in preventing eavesdropping in government buildings.
Under its HMGCC Co-Creation programme – run in partnership with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory – it has called for project ideas with an indication it will provide up to £60,000 for each.
It is open to sole innovators, industry, academic and research organisations.
The challenge derives from the need to prevent deliberate or accidental eavesdropping of sensitive conversations in government buildings.
Assessing risks
HMGCC said the risks are continually assessed due to the high pace of change in technology, and it now wants to hear from organisations developing machine learning and AI techniques that provide advanced noise cancellation to help it understand what is now possible and to test in a government office scenario.
“Understanding risk in this type of working environment is an important function,” it said. “If there is an opportunity for eavesdropping, either accidentally or by a nefarious party, we would like to understand how challenging it would be to cancel out the irrelevant ambient noise to focus in on the conversation of significance.”
It is taking applications for support until 7 November.
