Pressure builds to stop AI’s 'mad science'

Pressure builds to stop AI’s ‘mad science’

Politico April 16, 2024
Carmen Paun, Daniel Payne, Gregory Svirnovskiy, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker

Scientists could use synthetic nucleic acids and artificial intelligence to engineer new living organisms.

It’s a risky enough proposition that President Joe Biden tasked the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in his AI executive order last fall with writing rules to ensure the acids aren’t used for nefarious purposes, like the creation of a virus with pandemic potential.

Now lawmakers are getting antsy.

A bipartisan group has written to the office asking for the rules to be developed “effectively and without delay.”

The authors — five Democrats and five Republicans — include Reps. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Andy Harris (R-Md.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

They also laid out what it would take for the rules to be...