In his 6,000-word essay, Bill Gates says malicious actors could weaponize AI technologies to create deadly diseases. This could potentially threaten the existence of humanity. He says rapid advancement in AI technologies has made the risk of bioterrorism an existential threat. The essay sheds light on the dual-use nature of AI models. Gates writes, “Although AI will lead to life-saving advances in drugs and vaccines, it will also make it easier to design a deadly new disease.”
The threat of bioterrorism
Gates notes that the same AI tools that are used to map proteins and discover life-saving vaccines can be used to produce lethal diseases. While AI has positive capabilities, the negative capabilities are impossible to ignore. In a previous interview with MIT Technology Review, Gates also remarked that intentional bioterrorism is “about 50 times more scary, more likely than a natural pandemic risk.”
This is because AI models can generate pathogens with high-fatality rates that are not found in nature. While nature rarely produces viruses that have both highly lethal and transmissible qualities, AI can be potentially be used to engineer such viruses. Therefore, historical diseases can be synthetically modified into much more dangerous and contagious strains. AI can also optimize an existing virus or bacterium to make it immune to antibiotics or modify its structure to bypass vaccines. This could have catastrophic consequences for healthcare systems.
Proposed solutions
In his essay, Gates calls for a strict legal regulatory framework for any AI model that has the capability of designing new molecules. Mandatory global monitoring protocols ought to apply to open-source and commercial AI models to reduce these risks. World leaders should also establish formal international agreements. These agreements should outline criteria for reviewing high-risk models in an attempt to restrict bioweapon capabilities.
In addition, defensive AI models must be expanded. This will enable institutions to access efficient tools for predicting and detecting engineered bioweapons.
