Artificial intelligence is dramatically lowering the barriers to developing bioweapons and launching large-scale cyberattacks, according to a new analysis from the Future of Life Institute.
"So now with the ability of AI systems to help with synthesizing or like discovering ways of synthesizing different kinds of molecules or pathogens, being able to help a lot with moving through like how to do wet lab experiments, giving people a lot more biological knowledge than they would have otherwise needed to have, which lowers then the barriers for entry for people who might have previously wanted to develop these kinds of bioweapons and now are able to do it like much more easily."
Similarly, AI is enabling cyberattacks on critical infrastructure that previously required a well-resourced team of experts. The institute pointed to a threat intelligence report from Anthropic showing how China used AI agents to launch a full-scale cyber attack on parts of a Southeast Asian country's infrastructure.
"And this is similar with the second thing which we're worried about, which is like large scale like cybersecurity attacks on things like critical infrastructure, where previously you'd need like a really well resourced team of like experts, but now if like Claude can just code up anything."
The comments highlight the dual-use nature of advanced AI, which can both accelerate beneficial research and empower malicious actors with capabilities once reserved for nation-states.