Oligo-length biosecurity vs. AI engineering
Bruce Whittmann, @erichorvitz.bsky.social, our @jdiggans.bsky.social & team examine the vulnerabilities of biosecurity screening software to AI-reformulated synthetic homologs of POCs that have been cut into smaller segments.
@twistbioscience.com
On sabotage of our young scientists, by @holdenthorp.bsky.social @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
From global DNA screening standards to safeguards for benchtop synthesizers & AI tools, a new biosecurity playbook is taking shape.
Experts like our head of biosecurity, @jdiggans.bsky.social are thinking about this playbook so you don’t have to: bigthink.com/science-tech...
I do it regularly and feel guilty every single time.
We ran a randomized controlled trial to see if LLMs can help novices perform molecular biology in a wet-lab.
The results: LLMs may help in some aspects, but we found no significant increase at the core tasks end-to-end. That's lower than what experts predicted.
Our findings 🧵
Why universal gene synthesis screening protects American biotech
www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-am...
LLMs are good at idea quality, but weak on idea variance. GPT-4's brainstorm pools are less diverse than humans, unless you prompt for diversity explicitly. CoT prompting gets closest to “team human.” papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
"Some 10,109 doctoral-trained experts in science and related fields left their jobs last year as President Donald Trump dramatically shrank the overall federal workforce."
www.science.org/content/arti...
Google’s AlphaGenome deep learning model wants to do for DNA what AlphaFold did for proteins www.chemistryworld.com/news/googles...
#biology #AI #bio #biotech
This 🧵- any ‘article of the future’ proposals must consider this first.
Discussions about new features/formats for human readers make little sense until we address this.
Amazon is buying copper harvested by bacteria for its data centers
Tonight marked the last broadcast of PBS News Weekend for the foreseeable future. As the show signs off the air, anchor John Yang looks back at some of our top stories and highlights over the years. https://to.pbs.org/4pxYe7W
This afternoon, retired Army general Stanley McChrystal spoke at the retirement ceremony hosted by HRC for six trans service members who were forced out under Trump’s ban.
“I shouldn’t have to be thanked for being here. First off, we shouldn’t be here. This shouldn’t be happening.”
Full remarks:
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.
🤩 🎉 We’re thrilled to see our collaboration highlighting the importance of iterative improvement, cross industry collaboration, and foresight in biosecurity screening in the age of AI with @microsoft.com in this list: news.microsoft.com/source/featu...
@twistbioscience.com, @jdiggans.bsky.social
@nti.org convened global experts at the 2025 MSC for a scenario involving an AI-designed virus to examine risks, opportunities, and needed governance.
Hear insights from Brian Tse, @jdiggans.bsky.social, @bethcameron-dc.bsky.social, @jaimeyassif.bsky.social & Haley Severance.
@nti.org is launching its new AIxBio governance report emerging from a 2025 MSC tabletop exercise with high-level international experts.
Hear insights from Brian Tse, @jdiggans.bsky.social, @bethcameron-dc.bsky.social, @jaimeyassif.bsky.social , & Haley Severance.
🔗 Register Now ⬇️
The outbreak in Ethiopia is #Marburg virus, the first such outbreak for this country. 9 cases so far, including some health workers. x.com/drtedros/sta...
Microsoft has a fabulous behind-the-science blog paraphrasing the Paraphrase Project. 😉
@erichorvitz.bsky.social, Bruce Wittmann, Tessa Alexanian, and our own @jdiggans.bsky.social are thinking about the latest threats to biosecurity so you don’t have to...
The 2025 Ebola outbreak in Kasai, DRC, is caused by a virus virtually identical (>99.5%) to the one from Yambuku in 1976.
Half a century later, the genome hasn’t changed. That’s not supposed to happen with an RNA virus.
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
$40 billion dollars is the size of the entire NIH budget.
Collaborators @erichorvitz.bsky.social, Bruce Wittmann, Tessa Alexanian & @jdiggans.bsky.social discuss the paper in this engaging podcast.
Watch it here: www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@twistbioscience.com, @msftresearch.bsky.social
How do we decide what not to share?
I explore “information hazards” in this blog--on when openness in science risks misuse. Paraphrase effort led to a first-of-its-kind publishing model, accepted by Science: "When AI Meets Biology" aka.ms/AAy56z3 Full paper on the project avail here: aka.ms/AAy5e9c
In “Ideas,” collaborators Eric Horvitz, Bruce Wittmann, Tessa Alexanian, & James Diggans discuss a red-teaming effort that exposed & secured a biosecurity vulnerability in AI-driven protein design—& what the work shows about managing AI’s dual-use risks. msft.it/6010sLYsr
Venture capitalists in clean tech are starting to say out loud what they’ve suspected for a while: China’s dominance has left key sectors in the West uninvestable
Today makes a very good day to listen to people who actually practice public health, pediatrics, and those with expertise in infectious diseases, developmental pediatrics, and/or epidemiology.
WIRED's The Politics Issue
Big Tech's embrace of President Trump has left many of us wondering: What the hell happened to Silicon Valley?
In our new politics issue, we're getting into it.
Also, we're taking this cover across the US in billboards, posters and a mural. Clues to find us in the 🧵: www.wired.com/politics-iss...
Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued.
Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially.
Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.
