AI industry leaders including Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft urged US lawmakers to require DNA and RNA suppliers to screen orders for sequences that could be used to build dangerous pathogens.
In an open letter to US lawmakers the signatories said AI tools can lower the expertise needed to design harmful genetic sequences, order them from manufacturers and assemble them in a lab, creating a biosecurity gap that could accelerate pandemic risk.
Signatories named include Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Microsoft’s Mustafa Suleyman, alongside Meta’s AI chief Alexandr Wang and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis.
The letter was also signed by scientists, national-security and policy experts, and executives from biotech companies including Twist Bioscience and Ansa Biotechnologies.
The group framed synthetic DNA and RNA, which can be ordered online and assembled in a lab, as a vector that needs vendor-side screening to prevent misuse.
Scientists have long warned that advances in synthetic biology make it easier to engineer dangerous organisms or resurrect long-dead pathogens, a risk the letter says is amplified by AI.
The letter was reportedly organised by the Foundation for American Innovation and the Institute for Progress.
