Australian scientist warns of biological threat from one person with access to AI

Brief retelling from RIA II

Australian scientist Lottie Tagouri said that even one person with access to artificial intelligence can create a biological threat.

Using artificial intelligence models Evo 1 and Evo 2, Stanford University scientists have demonstrated for the first time the ability to generatively design complete genomes of viable bacteriophages.

Lottie Tajouri believes that risk assessments cannot assume that all users of such technologies will act responsibly.

MOSCOW, October 6 – RIA Novosti. Even one person with access to artificial intelligence may be enough to create a biological threat; when assessing the safety of such technologies, it is necessary to take into account that not all users will act responsibly, Lottie Tajuri, an Australian scientist, specialist in the field of genomics and molecular biology, associate professor at Bond University and Murdoch University, told RIA Novosti.

The scientist sits on the Dubai Police Council of Scientists, an expert council that provides scientific advice and develops security solutions. He received special recognition for his speech at the world-famous TEDx conference.

"It's not a matter of whether everyone can do it. It only takes one or two people who try to do it and no one stops them to create the unthinkable," Tajouri said.

In August, scientists at Stanford University, using artificial intelligence models Evo 1 and Evo 2, for the first time demonstrated the possibility of generative design of complete genomes of viable bacteriophages - viruses that infect bacteria. The laboratory synthesized and tested nearly 300 engineered variants, of which 16 were found to be viable and capable of infecting E. coli.

"What worries me the most is scale and speed. AI can analyze huge volumes of biological data, identify patterns that go beyond human capabilities, and speed up the design and testing of biological systems," the scientist said.

The potential danger lies not only in what an individual researcher can do with such tools, but also in the dramatic increase in the number of people and laboratories accessing such capabilities, Tajouri said.

"The danger isn't just what one researcher can do. It's that an increasingly powerful system could bring these capabilities to thousands of researchers, labs and applications," he said.

Tajouri believes that risk assessments cannot assume that all users of such technologies will act responsibly.

“We need to stop assuming idealistic scenarios in which everyone will behave well. We need to think about who - or what AI system - can do this without remorse,” the scientist emphasized.

As synthetic biology advances, he said, working with genetic material is becoming faster, cheaper and more accessible, while lowering the technical and financial barriers to the potential misuse of such technologies.