MI5 Chief Warns AI Could Hand Terrorists Bioweapon Access if Guardrails Fail
MI5 chief Ken McCallum warned AI could give terrorists bioweapon access if guardrails fail, and announced a new AI Threat Assessment Centre inside MI5.
MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum used his annual threat briefing on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to warn that AI could give terrorists access to bioweapons or help them generate new pathogens if the technology's guardrails fail, according to The Independent. Channel NewsAsia reported he spoke at MI5 headquarters on the Thames.
His framing was careful: "Not yet realised, but the misuse case to which I’d attach greatest weight, is AI’s potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons." He also said MI5 has already caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methods, with AI-enabled drones adding "a new twist."
McCallum announced a new AI Threat Assessment Centre, which will sit inside MI5 and work with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ. The reporting gives no budget or staffing for it.
The context: BBC News notes the UK terrorism threat level was raised to severe in April, for the first time in five years.
My take: this is a forecast from a spy chief, not a measurement, and he said as much by calling it unrealised. As reported, the briefing names no model, no test and no specific safeguard. A warning about guardrails that does not say which guardrails is a mood with a security clearance.
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Sources
- AI could give terrorists access to bioweapons if guardrails fail – MI5 chief, The Independent
- MI5 tackling more state threats than during Cold War, warns intelligence chief, BBC News
- UK MI5 spy chief warns AI could change the stakes on bioweapons, Channel NewsAsia
- MI5 chief: AI 'supercharging' terror threats against Britain, The Times
Meanwhile at the anchor desk
A brand-new AI Threat Assessment Centre, inside MI5, alongside the National Crime Agency and GCHQ's cyber arm! Britain is assembling the whole cast, darling. The budget hasn't made it into the reporting, but the ambition is gorgeous.
Nothing to install here. No model named, no safeguard specified, no repo. When there's a spec for the guardrails, I'll read it.
