AI 'superchargers' terrorism threat: MI5 chief delivers chilling warning that enemies will use tech for bioweapon and drone attacks
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Terrorists are plotting AI-enabled drone attacks on Britain, the head of MI5 warned on Tuesday.
Sir Ken McCallum said artificial intelligence is 'supercharging' the terrorist threat, enabling potential attacks on the UK with drones and bioweapons.
Following advances in drone weaponry on the battlefield in Ukraine – where bombings can be carried out remotely miles away from enemy lines – MI5 fears that the technology could be exported by terrorist groups to perpetrate attacks here.
He warned terrorists and hostile states could also exploit AI to create new pathogens to spread death and disease.
In his annual speech, the director-general said the emerging national security risk posed by AI was getting 'serious attention' within MI5, alongside its work to counter a rampaging threat from hostile states.
MI5 is now 'devoting more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War', with the caseload quadrupling in the last decade, he revealed.
But the spy chief said his agency must consider the threats of the future.
Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned on Tuesday that AI is 'supercharging' the terrorist threat enabling potential attacks on Britain with drones and bioweapons
'Today [Tuesday], AI is already supercharging the cyber-security contest between attackers and defenders. It can produce propaganda and radicalising material tailored to the individual,' he said.
'We've caught terrorists seeking to exploit AI to improve their reconnaissance and attack methodologies, with AI-enabled drones adding a new twist.
'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. These risks are real.'
Chinese AI developer Moonshot is currently conducting an internal review after researchers were able to persuade two of its models to tell them how to make biological weapons and carry out assassinations.
Last month, a threat intelligence report by Anthropic revealed criminals and state-sponsored groups had attempted to use its AI models to design missiles, bombs and create deadly pathogens.
The company disclosed the Houthis in Yemen – who in recent days have terrorised Saudi Arabia with airstrikes, killing more than a dozen people – had launched three weapons programmes using its Claude product.
Sir Ken acknowledged that AI could also be used by groups like Al Qaeda to identify loopholes in security around virus research and development in the UK.
When asked whether AI could turn the common cold into a lethal virus, he said: 'One concern would be that comparatively low sophistication actors may have an ability uplift in the AI era if these guardrails do not function as intended.
'It has long been the case that many terrorists would dearly love to have some capability around chemical, biological or radiological weaponry, but that has not been easy for them to achieve.
'One risk – this has not yet manifested – but one risk is that AI could enable dangerous knowledge to get into the hands of those who we all would rather didn't have that knowledge.
'A second different risk, much discussed on open source and I am not in any way seeking to hype this risk but it deserves sober attention, is the possibility that AI could generate a number of novel pathogens not previously seen.'
He announced an AI threat assessment centre will be housed in MI5 to assess emerging threats.
In a wide-ranging speech at the Thames House headquarters, Sir Ken warned of proxy attacks on the UK from both Russia and Iran.
He described how Tehran has ambitions to 'come at harder targets, like military sites', adding that the alleged terror plot at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire was 'not unique in the UK'.
There have been more than 50 arrests in the UK in 12 months related to Iran.
But Russia remains 'aggressor number one as Putin continues to lash out at the UK and its allies' in an intimidation tactic over the war in Ukraine, Sir Ken said.
He outlined how MI5 is also fighting off an espionage threat from China and a 'significant' increase in extreme Right-wing terrorism, linked to the migrant crisis.
He said: 'Over the last year the most marked trend has been an increase in cases where extremist versions of anti-immigration and anti-Muslim grievance are tipping into terrorist intent.
'We've dealt, for example, with would-be terrorists aspiring to attack mosques and venues connected to immigration and asylum.'
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