Bank of England Seeks 'Right to Intervene' Amid Rogue AI Threat

The Bank of England's governor, Andrew Bailey, has called for greater oversight and control over artificial intelligence (AI) amid growing concerns about its potential risks to financial stability.

Bailey said that frontier AI models have gone rogue in recent months, posing 'real and increasingly significant' threats to the financial system. He emphasized the need for a 'right to intervene' in the industry, citing the increased scale and sophistication of cyber threats.

The Bank's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) reported that large players in the AI sector have taken on $450 billion worth of debt between January and September this year, surpassing the UK government's entire gilt issuance for 2026. This has led to investors becoming tied to the fortunes of AI companies, which are yet to turn a profit.

Bailey argued that while the potential benefits of AI are immense, authorities need to be ready to step in and establish boundaries within which these systems operate. He proposed rigorous testing of new AI models to understand how they behave and identify 'credible points' where authorities could intervene.