OpenAI boss Sam Altman has joined leaders from rival AI firms to call for new laws that could help prevent artificial intelligence from being used to develop biological weapons.
Mr Altman was joined by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Microsoft AI’s Mustafa Suleyman in signing a public letter supporting rules that would require companies selling synthetic DNA to screen customers and orders.
The signatories claim that this would help prevent bad actors from misusing genetic material in order to create harmful bioweapons.
“While the issue is not new, the pace of progress in artificial intelligence is. AI systems now outperform PhD-level virologists on questions about highly technical laboratory procedures in their own domains of expertise,” the letter states.
“Alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode.”
The letter, titled ‘In support of mandatory nucleic acid synthesis screening and recordkeeping’, describes itself as a “rare moment of agreement across stakeholders that are often at odds”.
Mr Altman and Mr Amodei have clashed recently over AI safety issues, most recently after the Anthropic boss said he could not “morally capitulate” to demands by the US Department of War to use its technology for surveillance and autonomous weapons.
OpenAI subsequently struck a deal with the Pentagon, though Mr Altman later admitted in an internal memo that the announcement looked “opportunistic and sloppy”.
On stage at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi earlier this year, the two tech leaders were the only ones in a 14-person group photo to not hold hands.
Mr Amodei previously worked at OpenAI before leaving the firm in 2021 due to concerns about AI safety. He founded Anthropic that same year alongside six other former OpenAI employees.
