Swapping risky research for AI
Politico December 5, 2024
PANDEMIC
The federal government should encourage scientists to study dangerous pathogens by using artificial intelligence and machine learning instead of enhancing them.
That’s one of the recommendations from the final GOP report of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which the panel endorsed by voice vote Wednesday. Live viral research should be allowed only when needed, the report says.
It’s an idea that panel chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) discussed with Carmen earlier this year.
The final committee report endorses Wenstrup and other Republican subcommittee members’ view that a leak at a Chinese lab conducting gain-of-function research — which deliberately enhances pathogens, making them more deadly or transmissible to aid in developing vaccines or drugs to fight them —...