According to Reuters, US Senators from both Democratic and Republican parties expressed deep concern on AI. On Tuesday, they highlighted the potential malevolent applications of artificial intelligence. Their focus was specifically on the risk of exploiting AI to orchestrate a biological attack.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, warned that AI might assist unskilled malicious individuals in creating biological weapons.
“Certain steps in bio-weapons production involve knowledge that can’t be found on Google or in textbooks and requires a high level of expertise,” said Amodei.
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, worked with biosecurity experts to study biological risks arising from AI. He said, AI’s not yet capable of helping build a biological weapon but “can fill in some of these gaps.”
By empowering numerous actors to conduct extensive biological attacks, he believes this represents “a grave threat to U.S. national security.”
Senators’ Concerns
Democratic Subcommittee Chair Richard Blumenthal expressed deep concern, saying, “The experts building these systems are warning of human extinction. This hearing aims to set the foundation for legislation, transitioning from general principles to actionable recommendations, and crafting laws based on this hearing.”
Republican Senator Josh Hawley advocated for protective measures that guarantee the positive impact of this new technology on the American people.
The hearing follows AI firms like OpenAI, Alphabet, and Meta Platforms, making voluntary commitments to enhance AI safety.
