As AI advances biothreats, defenses won't mature on their own, researcher warns
graceisford · x · 2026-09-17
Kath McMahon argues that more capable models will bring increased biological risk—the magnitude is fiercely debated but the direction is not. Citing COVID's 7 million deaths and trillions in damage as a warning, she stresses that defenses cannot be assumed to mature in lockstep with rising risk; it takes dedicated people, policy, and development. She calls for racing to use AI advances to mitigate today's known natural threats and to build resilience for a new era of risk.
Related event: Stronger AI models raise biological risks, researchers warn(3 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Palmer Luckey asks: can you use datacenter RAM for things prohibited by the operator's terms of service? — avaitopiper · 2026-11-02
- On Terence Tao's blog, Frank Calegari calls on mathematicians to adapt after OpenAI's 700-paper release — Hesamation · 2026-11-02
- Polsia's Ben argues AI can autonomously run any human economic activity, including 80% of a company — LinusEkenstam · 2026-11-02
- AI Assistants Remember You, But Nothing Helps You Find What They Told You — Ok_Negotiation_2587 · 2026-11-02
- OpenAI and Anthropic claim AI-discovered proofs disprove the Exponential Time Hypothesis — emmanuelvivier · 2026-11-02
- Researcher: using a $20 AI subscription to fix my phone hints AI may suppress GDP — stanislavfort · 2026-11-02