'These risks are real': the threat of AI bioweapons - podcast In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK's intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to'change the stakes' on existing and even new bioweapons. To find out why, and how, Ian Sample speaks to Dr Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

It is not so much'killer robots' keeping one cabinet minister awake as the idea of concentrated, super-intelligent power ending up in the hands of bad actors. It is not so much'killer robots' keeping one cabinet minister awake as the idea of concentrated, super-intelligent power ending up in the hands of bad actors. The power of AI is worrying senior Labour figures - as is the fear of'falling behind the public' "I have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about," said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare. It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham's takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader. But a number of senior Labour figures were privately starting to name the power of AI as the thing worrying them most, alongside the immediate pressures on the cost of living and fragile economy.

Sir Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, raised concerns over the use of AI by hostile groups. Sir Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, raised concerns over the use of AI by hostile groups. In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK's intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to "change the stakes" on existing and even new bioweapons. Here we look at how AI might help in the development of bioweapons and the hurdles that remain. How could AI help people make bioweapons?

Of all the threats presented by uncontrollable artificial intelligence, scientists say death by plague ranks low. Concerns about an AI-induced apocalypse are reaching a fever pitch, from Silicon Valley to Washington, DC. One of the top theories about how a rogue AI will wipe us out? Earlier this summer, AI CEOs called for new laws to control the manufacturing of synthetic DNA. Then last month, researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute showed that AI can design new viral genomes .

In recent weeks, leaders of some of the biggest AI companies have warned that the very tech they are developing is dangerous. Last weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued that AI carries serious risk and that progress should be slowed. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded on X: "I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier." Those posts came a few days after the AI researcher Jacob Coxon announced that he was leaving a role at Anthropic, charging that neither it nor OpenAI (where he had also worked) was acting responsibly. "The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade," he posted on X . Another Anthropic employee, Evan Hubinger, publicly agreed with him. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!" he responded on X . "I personally think it is >10% within the next decade."

Here's What the AI Apocalypse Could Look Like This week on, we discuss three possible AI doomsday scenarios, AI safety, and the unexpected bipartisan alliance forming against AI. The debate of whether AI can kill us has been everywhere lately, but what would an actual AI catastrophe look like? This week, Brian Barrett, Zoë Schiffer, and Leah Feiger break down three real-world scenarios experts worry the most about--including hacked water supplies, bioweapons, and autonomous robots. We also discuss the highlights of Salesforce's annual conference, where OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei defended their positions on AI safety. Plus, Leah tells us how this backlash against AI has become a rare bipartisan flashpoint, to the point that Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon shared a stage over it this week. Washington Won't Be Regulating AI Anytime Soon Write to us at [email protected] . You can always listen to this week's podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here's how: If you're on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link . And instead of just adding to the pile of hot takes that already exist, we're going to walk you through real specific scenarios to the best of our ability about how AI would actually do this, and why the tech CEOs and politicians cannot seem to agree on the way forward. OK, guys, so the debate about AI safety has officially escaped containment. AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from Anthropic and posted on X that, The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei has called for a slowdown .

Should we worry AI will create deadly bioweapons? Artificial intelligence promises to transform biology, allowing us to design better drugs, vaccines and even synthetic organisms for, say, eating waste plastic. But some fear it could also be used for darker purposes, to create bioweapons that wouldn't be detected by conventional methods until it was too late. So, how worried should we be? "AI advances are fuelling breakthroughs in biology and medicine," says Eric Horvitz, chief scientific officer at Microsoft. "With new power comes responsibility for vigilance." His team has published a study looking at whether AI could design proteins that do the same thing as proteins that are known to be dangerous, but are different enough that they wouldn't be recognised as dangerous.

Imagine a world where everything from plastics to concrete is produced from biomass. Personalized cell and gene therapies prevent pandemics and treat previously incurable genetic diseases. Meat is lab-grown; enhanced nutrient grains are climate-resistant. This is what the future could look like in the years ahead. The next big game-changing revolution is in biology.

From The Terminator to The Day After Tomorrow, movies have envisioned just about every possibility for how the world might end. If you're a science fiction movie buff, you might think that some of these apocalyptic scenarios seem a little far-fetched. But hold onto your popcorn, as experts say that some of these disastrous plotlines could actually become a reality. While we don't need to worry about an asteroid wiping us out like in Armageddon, experts warn that a bioweapon leak like 12 Monkeys could really end the world. And if your favourite blockbuster does give us a glimpse at how the world will end, not even Bruce Willis will be able to save us. Apocalypse movies find their inspiration in a number of different disasters, but which are the most realistic. An escaped bioweapon could pose a genuine threat of destroying humanity.

Lawmakers and scientists have warned ChatGPT could help anyone develop deadly bioweapons that would wreck havoc on the world. While studies have suggested it is possible, new research from the chatbot's creator OpenAI claims GPT-4 - the lasted version -provides at most a mild uplift in biological threat creation accuracy. OpenAI conducted a study of 100 human participants who were separated into groups - one used the AI to craft a biotattack and the other just the internet. The study found that'GPT-4 may increase experts' ability to access information about biological threats, particularly for accuracy and completeness of tasks,' according to OpenAI's report. Results showed that the LLM group was able to obtain more information about bioweapons than the internet only group for ideation and acquisition, but more information is needed to accurately identify any potential risks.