AI increases the ability of biotechnology and bioengineered viruses to be designed and released for maximum human destruction. An Executive Order just released highlights the risk, but calls for nothing but studies and models. The key part of the executive order was the three page long section on “Reducing Risks at the Intersection of AI and CBRN Threats. . . . — with a particular focus on biological weapons”:
- “evaluate the potential for AI to be misused to enable the development or production of CBRN threats”
- “assesses the ways in which AI can increase biosecurity risks, including risks from generative AI models trained on biological data, and makes recommendations on how to mitigate these risks”
- “considers the national security implications of the use of data and datasets . . . . for the training of generative AI models, and makes recommendations on how to mitigate the risks related to the use of these data and datasets”
- “considers additional concerns and opportunities at the intersection of AI and synthetic biology that the Secretary of Defense deems appropriate”
- “encourage providers of synthetic nucleic acid sequences to implement comprehensive, scalable, and verifiable synthetic nucleic acid procurement screening mechanisms”
- “ongoing identification of biological sequences that could be used in a manner that would pose a risk to the national security of the United States”
- “determine standardized methodologies . . . with respect to managing security risks posed by purchasers of biological sequences”
If you’re a government funded think tank or agency, this is a great order to give you more work studying the problem. But there is nothing in this order on actually reducing the risks of AI and bioengineering killing us. And these measures pertain only to U.S. government funded and controlled programs. There are no restrictions on U.S. commercial use of AI, and nothing that can be done about misuse of AI and bioengineering technology worldwide. Of course North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, al Qaeda, and individuals who want to kill off humans to save the planet would not pay any attention to such bans.
The Executive Order completely ignored what really matters—getting the country ready to survive what biologists have long been warning is “inevitable” misuse of this technology, and a pandemic that would likely be the worst disaster our species has ever experienced.
Top government officials will be protected at Mount Weather, Raven Rock and other sites. Fortitude Ranch members can survive a pandemic and the collapse (no economic production, widespread loss of order) that follows. Most Americans will be unprepared and on their own.