Could AI-enabled bioweapons threaten civilization?

One participant argues that AI’s medical benefits will far outweigh the harms of engineered bioweapons. In a later reply, they stress that pandemics require preparation and can kill many people, but maintain they will not end civilization and say AI will probably improve countermeasures.

Critics stress uncertainty about how deadly engineered viruses could be and whether defenses will keep pace as AI weakens barriers to designing them. A researcher who says they have spent years building defenses warns that not seeing a path to a civilization-threatening pandemic does not establish that none exists. They argue that AI can worsen biological risk, but that the risk does not depend on AI.