Frontier AI agents can write production pathogen surveillance pipelines when handed a detailed spec. When handed just the raw sequencing data and a minimal prompt, they fell short. The first benchmark measuring agent performance on pathogen surveillance: benchmarks.bio/surveillance
@kenbwork Maybe there are still new end goals to be discovered in biotech
@DNA2FUNCTION @ATinyGreenCell Those aren’t the only two options. If AI is smart enough to make novel seqs, it’s smart enough to detect them too. An ambiguous seq that may be harmful in theory is going to be as challenging to detect accurately as it would be for a nefarious actor to misuse it
@DNA2FUNCTION @ATinyGreenCell There are no plans to reject ambiguous or novel sequences that can’t be linked to a harmful function
@DNA2FUNCTION @ATinyGreenCell DNA orders are extremely rarely outright rejected. 99% of the time even orders that are flagged resolve without affecting shipment times. What gets blocked are flagged orders without appropriate justification and documentation that would be regularly expected for the research
@DNA2FUNCTION @ATinyGreenCell DNA costs are by and large not the major costs of biotech startups. Equipment, lab space, labor, clinical trials, and regulatory approvals are 10x to 100x more expensive and more cost prohibitive than DNA
@BioAndBaseball @001TMF Many of the screening practices called out in the letter are already in place and have been for the last decade at many of the largest synthesis providers. From what I’ve seen R&D has only gotten faster with gene length constructs approaching oligo level delivery time
@DNA2FUNCTION @ATinyGreenCell @OpenAI @AnthropicAI @idtdna @TwistBioscience @thermofisher As with any dual-use product, we need to strike the right balance. We are making every effort to not get in the way of legitimate research. The KYC process are being designed with these very issues top of mind
@agupta @owl_posting If a bioterrorist is trying to make a bioweapon the scenario is far more balanced and the approach as is could be effective. For state actors, preventing proliferation of all WMDs is a major. Detection is an important part of the infrastructure
@agupta @owl_posting What scenario do you have in mind where there’s unequal access? State actors?
@agupta @owl_posting If the models are smart enough to harness hypothesized biology, they would also be smart enough to detect when the harnessed biology will lead to harm
@agupta @owl_posting Maybe with some more creative ideas of how to cause harm, this can already be broken. Maybe new tech is months away from breaking it. Today, it’s not trivial to circumvent and the problem has sensible solutions. I’m gonna keep building to so it’s gonna do shit 🙃
@agupta @owl_posting State of the art screening practices are in line with current genetic engineering capabilities and AI-enabled biological design tools (e.g., biorxiv.org/content/biorxi… and science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…)
@ATinyGreenCell @OpenAI @AnthropicAI @idtdna @TwistBioscience @thermofisher Some places to get involved / people to chat with below! Join the SBRC if you’re interested in contributing to what we screen against sbrc.bio fourtheon.bio/#about securebio.org/ai/ sentinelbio.org/people/
@ATinyGreenCell @OpenAI @AnthropicAI @idtdna @TwistBioscience @thermofisher Please join in on the red teaming to help us make it better 🙃
@ATinyGreenCell @OpenAI @AnthropicAI @idtdna @TwistBioscience @thermofisher We’re already screening well beyond explicit homologies doi.org/10.1126/scienc…
@ATinyGreenCell @OpenAI @AnthropicAI 99% of researchers working in pharma, ag, industrial, and consumer will never see a difference in their work. If you’ve ordered from @idtdna @TwistBioscience or @thermofisher among many others you’ve already experienced the frictionless process I’m describing
We're kicking off SynBioBeta with a night of apps and drinks with our friends at @IBBIS_bio on May 5th from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Register today! lu.ma/6fhjkqin
Honored to be included in this year's class! x.com/BSPH_CHS/statu…
Fun chat with @nlarusstone! Thanks for hosting us x.com/bitsinbio/stat…
