“AI Viruses”
Because of course.
Doing the rounds is news that “AI” has been a major part in creating new, never-before-seen-in-nature viruses. There is talk of this being funded by none other than Bill Gates.
Is any of this legit?
It is legit in that “AI used to create synthetic viruses” has been claimed. Gates funding? I have not spent any time following the money, so I’m not sure. It is possible as he and his “philanthropy” funds lots of research facilities, labs, universities etc.
The bits that are not legit are:
- They even needed “AI” to do this. Computers could previously generate genomes, as that is exactly how genomes are assembled. There is no physical end-to-end read of any genetic material, ever. It is not possible. They can, with quite significant error rates, “read” short sequences of nucleotides (20-100 base pairs) at a time, from fragments. They then feed these “reads” into a computer which then “assembles” the most likely overall sequence, based on databases of prior sequences. AI is not required to come up with a “novel” sequence. This is all to play into the scary doom-mongering of how powerful “AI” is. It’s bullshit. Anyone claiming this is only now possible because of “AI” is ignorant or a liar.
- It is all very well having these sequences in-silico (i.e. inside a computer) but actually creating these things accurately in real life is simply not possible. Even with stuff like CRISPR Cas-9 they cannot actually assemble a genome piece by piece. It is not possible, and anyone claiming it is, is ignorant or a liar.
I presume you’ll be picking up on a general theme here.
The “AI” industry is desperate for money, and to keep the hype going. To this end they are making up stories of their “AI” going rogue. They are making up stories about how scary and powerful it is, in the hope that Governments will step in, and fund it. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have already broached this exact topic. Google (the only other real big player, Meta and Zuckerberg are just a joke) is already in bed with the US Government and military.
Now, the question could be, can they genetically fuck around with bacteriophages (which are not viruses)? Yes, they can meddle genetically with anything. That is precisely what mRNA does. It meddles. It is not precise. It is not reliable or accurate. It genetically meddles with cells to make them produce something they otherwise would not, which is junk. That junk is what kills people or otherwise injures them.
The wording is very important. They talk about creating these “synthetic viruses” that are not found in “nature”. Big deal. It is not hard to just meddle imprecisely and end up with something unnatural. This is not the same as accurately assembling a genome.
I can generate a random sequence made up of the letters A, C, G and T, and put in some specific sequences to represent the start/end codons (this is something that is claimed to be part of DNA/RNA, it may or may not be what they say it is) and claim I have produced a novel genome. Or I could take full sequences that already exist (supposedly they are actual, accurate readings, but they are not) and just swap some sections in and out, and claim I have created a novel genome. At this point it is literally all academic as this is all done inside a computer. And, crucially, even if this was all accurate, taking that sequence and actually producing it in the real world is not possible.
The tools do not exist to accurately manipulate individual nucleobases. Just like it isn’t possible to just assemble new atomic elements because the tools to do it can never exist. This is what I call the Resolution Problem, which is to say if your tools are made up of things larger than the objects you are working on, it is like trying to cut a grain of rice in half with a baseball bat.
The only reason anyone needs to be concerned about AI viruses is if you personally allow any of the results of this meddling be injected in to you. Otherwise, it is pure doom-mongering hype as a form of marketing and desperation for money.