MI5 establishes AI threat assessment center in the UK — Politico Europe
In the United Kingdom, MI5 has established the Artificial Intelligence Threat Assessment Centre (AITAC), which will analyze AI risks to the country, including those related to terrorism, state threats, and biological weapons. MI5 Director General Ken McCallum announced this during the annual threat assessment update in London, Politico Europe reports.
Security risks
According to McCallum, MI5 has already identified terrorists attempting to use AI to improve reconnaissance and attack methods. He also drew attention to the danger posed by AI-enabled drones.
The head of the service said he attaches particular importance to the risk that AI could transform capabilities related to existing or new biological weapons. He noted that failures in safety guardrails in AI models could give terrorists with limited capabilities additional knowledge and capacity.
McCallum also stressed the need to seriously assess the risk that AI could create new, previously unknown pathogens. According to him, the government is taking additional steps in the area of countering biological weapons.
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Unified threat assessment
AITAC will bring together the expertise of the UK AI Security Institute, the National Crime Agency, and the National Cyber Security Centre. The center’s task will be to distinguish real threats from exaggeration and prioritize different manifestations of AI risks.
This is the third analytical center established by MI5, following structures that assess terrorist and state threats. McCallum explained that AITAC is intended to help avoid conflicting assessments by different agencies, while the government will make the final decisions on responding to threats.
MI5 has also given the protection of critical infrastructure, countering cognitive warfare, and technological threats the status of one of its main areas of work, alongside counterterrorism and countering state threats.
