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by Balgair 533 days ago
I just want to echo this here and in a bit different wording: AI will provide step-by-step guides on how to make viruses that just about any idiot can follow, for very cheap, and in under a year time frame.

I really really hope I'm missing something big here.

1 comments

Having a step-by-step guide and actually being able to follow it are two very different things. If you follow YouTube channels like The Thought Emporium you'll see how hard it is just to duplicate existing lab results from published sources in biology. To go a step further and create new dangerous things without also getting yourself killed in the process is a pretty tall order.
We should be talking about the more abstract problem of asymmetric defense and offense.

Imagine that nukes were easy to make with household items. That would be a scenario where offense is easy but defense is hard. And we would not exist as a species anymore.

Once a hypothetical technology like this is discovered one time, it's not possible to put the genie back in the bottle without extreme levels of surveillance.

We got lucky that nukes were hard to make. We had no idea that would be the case before nuclear physics was discovered, but we played Russian Roulette and survived.

Having a step-by-step guide and actually being able to follow it are two very different things.

exactly. we'll see how far it goes. it might be a more elaborate draw the rest of an owl guide, like:

1. obtain uranium-238

2. fire up the centrifuge for isotope separation

3. drop yellowcake into it

3. collect uranium-235

...

You missed the part where you turn uranium metal into a gas for the centrifuge to work in the first place
That's because I wrote it of top of my head and haven't asked AI for instructions! :)
Or just watch a manhattan project youtube
link?