MI5 chief warns of rising state threats and risks from misuse of AI

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the agency’s state-threat caseload had quadrupled over a decade. He delivered his annual threat update in London on October 13.

McCallum said Iran had shifted towards attempts to target harder-to-reach locations, including military sites. He declined to discuss details of the RAF Fairford incident because an investigation was continuing, but said it was not the only such case.

On Russia, the MI5 chief described escalating activity below the threshold of conventional warfare. He cited suspected attacks in Germany and Poland. Those are the British security service’s assessments, rather than findings by this article about responsibility for each incident.

McCallum separately warned about terrorists using artificial intelligence, including to gain knowledge about biological weapons. In his published speech, he announced that an AI Threat Assessment Centre had been established this year. The centre studies those risks.