{"id":27914,"date":"2026-10-13T01:21:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T19:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/?p=27914"},"modified":"2026-10-14T08:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T02:23:54","slug":"ai-could-change-the-stakes-on-bioweapons-uk-spy-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/?p=27914","title":{"rendered":"AI could &#8216;change the stakes&#8217; on bioweapons: UK spy chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head of Britain&#8217;s domestic spy agency warned Tuesday (Oct 13) that artificial intelligence was affecting the security risks faced by the UK, and could &#8220;change the stakes&#8221; on bioweapons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today AI is already supercharging the cybersecurity contest between attackers and defenders,&#8221; Ken McCallum, MI5 director general, said in his annual threat briefing.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence technology had the &#8220;potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons&#8221;, he warned in his speech at the agency&#8217;s headquarters on the banks of the river Thames.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--MishB1f5--\/c_fill,g_center,h_598,w_747\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_one-cms:core:watermark:ap_data-1,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/one-cms\/core\/Britain-MI5-Threats_25325.jpg?itok=yExeSKlV\" alt=\"AI could 'change the stakes' on bioweapons: UK spy chief\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He announced that MI5 had launched this year a new AI Threat Assessment Centre, housed in its headquarters, and was drawing expertise from other bodies &#8220;producing all-source assessments which separate the bluster from the realities&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Put at its simplest, human history has given us no experience of facing an actor which is smarter than we are. Is capable of out-thinking us. This is genuinely novel,&#8221; McCallum added.<\/p>\n<p>He said the agency had already uncovered suspects using AI to improve its reconnaissance efforts and means of attack, including with AI-enabled drones.<\/p>\n<p>McCallum also revealed that the agency was devoting more resources to combating threats from foreign states than at any time since the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over the last decade, our state threats caseload has quadrupled,&#8221; he said, adding: &#8220;Russia remains aggressor number one.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Russian military and intelligence services are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare,&#8221; McCallum warned.<\/p>\n<p>Iran was also seeking to expand its hybrid warfare, and over the past 12 months more than 50 arrests had been made in Iran-linked operations, McCallum said.<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Monday told MPs that a recent scare at a UK airbase in southwestern England used by the US military was &#8220;highly likely&#8221; to have been coordinated in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those who seek to cause mayhem on British streets &#8211; whether hired thugs here or their paymasters overseas &#8211; will meet an unflinching response,&#8221; McCallum vowed.<\/p>\n<p>Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of Britain&#8217;s domestic spy agency warned Tuesday (Oct 13) that artificial intelligence was affecting the security risks faced by the UK, and could &#8220;change the stakes&#8221; on bioweapons. &#8220;Today AI is already supercharging the cybersecurity contest between attackers and defenders,&#8221; Ken McCallum, MI5 director general, said in his annual threat briefing. Artificial intelligence technology had the &#8220;potential to change the stakes on existing or even new bioweapons&#8221;, he warned in his speech at the agency&#8217;s headquarters on the banks of the river Thames. He announced that MI5 had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27915,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27914\/revisions\/27915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/USBnews24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}