Before I introduce another dystopian nightmare that feels more out of the movie I Am Legend, I’ll note that there is a long way to go before this goes bad. A Stanford-led group of researchers has used AI to develop synthetic viruses in a lab environment. This wasn’t a threat to anyone this time, as a controlled lab environment capable of creating something like this is rather safe. Still, it stands to reason that bad actors could take this capability further, or unconstrained AI could also unleash something meant for good or bad against humanity if checks and balances are not maintained. In our quest to explore new options, we need to keep ourselves, and AI in check, not out of fear or worry, but out of simple and pure safety and precaution.
A Stanford-led research team has used generative AI to design a synthetic virus — the first time artificial intelligence has been harnessed to create a organism that has never been seen in nature.
