Artificial intelligence (AI)-designed genetic sequences for toxic proteins can slip by the screening tools commonly used by biotechnology companies, new research finds.
Security patches, scrambled in a months-long effort led by researchers at Microsoft, can reduce the risk, but about 3% of potentially dangerous sequences still slip through these tools, according to a new study in the journal Science. The research highlights new biosecurity dangers arising from AI, even as it promises to revolutionize biotechnology and medicine.
Because they are adept at handling large amounts of data, AI models can generate new designs for proteins exponentially faster than humans, for whom protein design is a painstaking, almost impossibly time-consuming task. When researchers send genetic sequences containing instructions for designer proteins to biotechnology companies that synthesize the proteins, these companies often screen the requests to ensure they’re not being asked to make something dangerous.
But while preparing for a summit on biosecurity among protein scientists in 2023, researchers at Microsoft realized that the screening software used by major nucleic acid synthesis companies often missed AI-designed instructions for potentially dangerous proteins. Borrowing from cyber-security processes, they contacted trusted organizations such as the...
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