AI groups are racing to address the risk that future models could help users create novel viruses or bioweapons, amid rising concerns that the technology’s scientific capabilities will become the industry’s next public-security threat. Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind are stepping up work on biological risk testing, access controls and other safeguards to limit misuse of advanced AI systems that they hope will speed up drug discovery, aid disease research and prevent pandemics. The safety push reflects a growing belief among AI executives and biosecurity experts that biology may be the next field, after cyber security, that will need to be secured as new models become more powerful. “Much of anything that happens in the chemical bio space, [is] very dual use. That information that you use to create a bioweapon is also used to create an antidote or a vaccine,” said Dawn Bloxwich, whose team reviews and investigates suspicious activity across Google DeepMind’s AI models.

Full report : Frontier AI labs are stepping up biological risk testing, which is harder than cybersecurity testing, where capabilities can be tested in digital environments.