There Are Plenty of Reasons to Be Concerned About Bioweapons Development—Even Without AI
The article explores the dual-use risks of AI and genetic engineering, highlighting concerns about the potential for creating dangerous pathogens. It references recent reports of users attempting to bypass AI guardrails and discusses the broader implications of gain-of-function research.
Why it matters
It highlights the intersection of AI safety and biological security, posing critical questions about the risks of democratizing access to dangerous scientific knowledge.
That last one isn’t merely theoretical. A “misuse” report Anthropic made public earlier this month detailed five cases in which foreign scientists tried to evade Claude’s guardrails on “gain of function” inquiries. That’s a euphemism for when scientists tinker with a pathogen’s genes to enhance it in some way, making it more infectious, deadlier, or better able to spread among mammals, for example.
Anthropic denied those users the answers they sought and cut off their accounts, even while noting that their motives may not have been sinister. Such information also can be used to help scientist develop pandemic countermeasures like vaccines and drugs. And there’s the rub. Like so many technologies, AI included, genetic engineering can be used for both good and evil. Hence another euphemism: “dual use.”
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