Terrorist groups are exploring AI-powered drone attacks against Britain, MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum warned on Tuesday.
He said artificial intelligence was “supercharging” the terrorist threat, creating new possibilities for attacks in the UK involving drones and biological weapons.
The warning follows rapid advances in drone warfare in Ukraine, where explosives can be deployed remotely from miles behind enemy lines. MI5 fears terrorist organisations could adapt and export that technology for use in attacks on British soil.
Sir Ken also cautioned that terrorists and hostile states could misuse AI to develop novel pathogens capable of causing widespread death and disease.
In his annual speech, the MI5 director-general said the national security risks emerging from AI were receiving “serious attention” within the agency. That work is taking place alongside efforts to confront a rapidly intensifying threat from hostile states.
MI5 is now “devoting more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War”, Sir Ken said, revealing that the agency’s caseload in this area has quadrupled over the past decade.
However, the spy chief stressed that MI5 must also prepare for the threats that could emerge in the years ahead.
Sir Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned on Tuesday that AI is “supercharging” the terrorist threat, opening the door to potential drone and bioweapon attacks on Britain
“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 carrying out an internal review after researchers persuaded two of its models to provide information on making biological weapons and conducting assassinations.
A threat intelligence report published by Anthropic last month said criminals and state-backed groups had tried to use its AI models to design missiles and bombs, as well as create deadly pathogens.
The company said 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.
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Sir Ken said AI could also help organisations such as Al Qaeda find weaknesses in security surrounding virus research and development in the UK.
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.”
Sir Ken also announced that MI5 will establish an AI threat assessment centre to examine and assess emerging risks.
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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