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7h ago

MI5 Declares AI a Front‑Rank National Security Threat

The new AI Threat Assessment Centre will coordinate intelligence to counter state espionage, cyberattacks, the risk that advanced tools could enable biological weapons.

Director General of MI5 Ken McCallum speaks at Thames House, the headquarters of the UK's Security Service in London, Britain, October 13, 2026. Jonathan Brady/Pool via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Armed police pictured standing guard manning a roadblock at an entrance to RAF Fairford during the investigation into the incident.
'Many terrorists would dearly love to have some kind of capability of getting [a] biological or meteorological weapon,' the head of the Security Service has warned
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Overview

  • Sir Ken McCallum gave an annual threat update on Tuesday and announced AITAC, a new AI Threat Assessment Centre, as MI5 reallocates staff and funding to put technology risks on a par with state and terror work.
  • MI5 says it has already intercepted actors using AI for reconnaissance and has identified attempts to use AI‑enabled drones to improve plotting and targeting.
  • The service singled out bioweapons as the misuse case it worries about most, warning that faulty model guardrails could give lower‑skill actors a dangerous capability uplift or allow models to generate novel pathogens.
  • MI5 reported its state‑threat caseload has quadrupled over the past decade and named Russia, Iran and China as the principal hostile states, with more than 50 Iran‑linked arrests in the past 12 months.
  • AITAC will produce joint, all‑source assessments with GCHQ, NCSC, the NCA and the AI Security Institute and MI5 urged a whole‑of‑society push to harden infrastructure, counter online manipulation and boost community resilience.