[gr_norm]

Not only is the DNA sequence for smallpox available, but since 2018 there's been a well-documented end-to-end synthesis procedure for the very closely related horsepox virus [1]! No LLMs needed. Caused quite a stir in the synthetic biology community back then.

The world has not come to an end, of course, because even with peer-reviewed and experience-driven (rather than hallucinated and therefore dangerous) instructions detailing obstacles encountered during synthesis and how to overcome them, actually going out and acquiring the materials and ability to use them sufficiently skillfully is another matter entirely. Biosecurity is an important topic, to be sure, but what the AI labs have to say about it (or anything) at this point does not necessarily survive contact with reality.

[1] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

[qnleigh]

I'm not talking about what the AI labs are saying and it. I don't know what they have been saying and I don't care. I care whether LLMs a few generations from now will be about to bring these dangerous capabilities to the masses. Right now, given the progress of open and closed-source models, it seems inevitable.