MI5 launches AI Threat Assessment Centre as spy chief flags AI-enabled bioweapons risk
MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum used his annual threat update to announce the AI Threat Assessment Centre (AITAC), bringing together UK expertise to assess AI national-security risks, and said he gives the greatest weight to AI's potential to change the stakes on bioweapons.
MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum announced on October 13, 2026 that Britain's domestic security service has launched the AI Threat Assessment Centre (AITAC), unveiling it during his annual threat update at Thames House in London.
What AITAC will do
According to MI5, the centre is housed within the service but draws together expertise from bodies including the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI), the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre. It is producing all-source assessments that, in McCallum's words, "separate the bluster from the realities."
Politico reported that AITAC is the third centre of its kind at MI5, following similar units for terrorism and state threats. McCallum said the government, not AITAC, will decide how to respond to AI risks, but that the centre is meant to avoid "competitive analysis" and conflicting messages from different departments, giving officials "a single version of the truth."
Bioweapons and other risks
McCallum said the misuse case he weights most heavily is AI's potential to "change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons," a threat he described as not yet realised, BBC News reported. He warned that "low-capability" terrorists could gain an uplift if safety guardrails in AI models fail.
He also said MI5 has caught terrorists seeking to use AI to improve reconnaissance and attack planning, with AI-enabled drones "adding a new twist," and that AI can produce propaganda and radicalising material tailored to individuals while "supercharging" the contest between cyber attackers and defenders.
Beyond misuse by human adversaries, McCallum pointed to risks posed by AI itself — the alignment problem. "Human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are, is capable of outthinking us," he said.
Wider context
McCallum said MI5 is now devoting more resources to countering state threats than during the Cold War, and that national resilience — including protecting critical infrastructure, countering cognitive warfare and addressing technology threats — will receive "front-rank mission status" alongside counter-terrorism and countering state threats.
Sources: MI5, BBC News, Politico Europe.
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