Researcher who trained frontier LLMs and synthesized viruses calls AI bio-doom scenario bogus
nptacek · x · 2026-09-14
a16z partner martincasado amplified an argument against a commonly cited AI doom scenario: the quoted author, DavidRBellamy, claims to be one of very few people who have both trained a frontier LLM and personally designed and synthesized custom viruses in a lab — and he considers the "AI will kill us all with engineered viruses" take totally bogus.
The core reasoning: pathogen iteration requires physical-world experimentation, so it can't loop and amplify the way purely digital capabilities can.
Casado adds that doomers typically counter such arguments with whataboutism demanding a magic step or nonexistent technology.
Related event: Dual-background researcher debunks AI pandemic doom claims(26 posts)→
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