This morning, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) debated AI in Strasbourg. Last week, MI5 put AI-enabled bioweapons at the top of its threat list. The EU already has part of the answer drafted – Chapter VIII of the EU Biotech Act.
On 13 Oct. 2026, the Director General of MI5 Ken McCallum stood up at Thames House and said the quiet part out loud in his announcement of a new AI Threat Assessment Centre (AITAC). He warned that of all the risks AI brings, the one he attaches the greatest weight to is its potential to change the stakes on existing and even novel bioweapons. Low-capability actors, he said, could get a capability uplift if the safety guardrails in AI models don’t hold. And he was explicit that terrorists have long wanted chemical and biological capabilities – but these are hard to create.
Read that sentence again, because it is the whole policy argument in one line. What has stopped terrorists in the past is that chemical and biological capabilities are hard to create. The job of biosecurity policy is to keep it hard. That is why rani supports a strong Chapter VIII on biosecurity in the EU Biotech Act that sets clear rules for nucleic acid synthesis screening. So what is this all about?
WATCH THE EXPLAINER
Before the Brussels argument gets technical, it helps to see what is actually being screened and why. The Centre for Future Generations, a rani partner, has produced a short video on nucleic acid synthesis screening – what it is, how it works, where the gaps are.
The striking thing about biosecurity screening in 2026 is how little disagreement there actually is once people examine the evidence. A broad range of stakeholders have arrived at the same place, coming from completely different starting points:
The AI industry itself.
The Commission’s own security directorate.
Security services, AI developers, EU counter-terrorism officials, and gene synthesis companies are moving in the same direction – a strong signal in itself that it is time for action.
The European Commission’s proposal for an EU Biotech Act, launched on 16 Dec. 2025, contains Chapter VIII: biosecurity legislation that will keep citizens safer. Suppliers of ‘biotechnology products of concern’ will need to verify who their customers are, they will need to establish a legitimate need for each order, they will keep records, and they will refuse and report any suspicious transactions. This will make Europe, and all of us, safer.
Learn more
- Short explainer on nucleic acid synthesis screening.
- Joint Position on the EU Biotech Act and Wider Legislative Efforts to Strengthen Europe’s Bioeconomy
- SIPRI Q&A with Dr Miranda Smith on combating new bioweapon risks and the EU Biotech Act
- Priorities to Uphold European Biosecurity – joint briefing by rani, RAND Europe, IBBIS, the Centre for Future Generations, and Pour Demain
- Policy brief on closing the implementation gap: a harmonised EU framework for synthetic nucleic acid screening and customer verification
- ProtectEU upcoming CBRN Action Plan to feature NA synthesis screening
- Horizon Europe
