MI5 chief: AI amplifies threats, Russia is enemy number one

In his annual speech on security threats, MI5 chief McCallum said that humanity is facing an “adversary smarter than us” for the first time, one capable of outthinking humans. In his words, this is a fundamentally new situation and deserves attention, including from MI5.

Artificial intelligence in the service of threats

AI, McCallum said, is markedly sharpening the cyber confrontation between attackers and defenders. It can generate propaganda and radicalising material tailored to specific individuals. The security services have already arrested terrorists who tried to use AI to improve reconnaissance and attack methods, and AI-powered drones add a new scale of risk.

AI could also help terrorist groups or hostile states that have so far tried and failed to create biological weapons. That has not happened yet, but the risks are real, he stressed.

Familiar threats are growing too

The number of threats from states hostile to Britain that MI5 has to deal with has quadrupled over the past decade. Russia, Iran and China are the main players involved. The scale of the plots — sabotage, assassination attempts, cyberattacks, arson — is so great that counter-intelligence now spends more resources on foreign threats than at any point during the Cold War.

Russia remains the number one aggressor. Its spies and proxies carry out operations against Britain and its allies that stay below the threshold of conventional war, though sometimes only just. The Kremlin recruits criminals and “volunteers” because Britain and other European countries have expelled many of its own spies. Moscow usually denies such accusations.

Iran uses similar tactics, Sky News reports, citing McCallum’s speech. Over the past year, law enforcement has arrested more than 50 people in Iran-linked cases, including a wave of arson attacks and sabotage against Jewish communities. According to him, Tehran’s list of targets now includes military bases as well.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz