AI SAFETY
Anthropic says it blocked attempts to build bio-weapons
“These are chilling examples of state-sponsored biological weapons developers tapping into the rapidly advancing capabilities.”
That might seem like a sentence from a sci-fi movie pitch. But it’s actually how Andrew Weber, a senior fellow on the Council on Strategic Risks, described Anthropic’s new threat report… before the company released it to the public.
Anthropic claimed to have blocked multiple accounts from using their tools to develop bio-weapons. The company broke down five specific cases that involved AI-assisted inquiries into infectious diseases, toxins, and bio-threats like bird flu.
Now here’s the deal. The users behind this activity may have been legit scientists. They could’ve been conducting genuine research or even pressure-testing Claude’s safeguards. Who knows? The point is, Anthropic has no way of telling if these queries were ill-intended. And that’s the tricky part.
While AI can speed up life-saving research, it also has the power to expedite R&D behind biological warfare. Oof.
What Anthropic found:
Red flags: Anthropic identified 35 attempts to use AI to accelerate risky research within a 30-day review period.
Five case studies: The safety report flagged inquiries into bird flu, venoms, toxins, transmissibility, and immune evasion.
Sneaky workarounds: Users dodged location-based restrictions and misled Claude about their research goals to skirt the platform’s restrictions.
Ethically ambiguous
Former CDC director, Susan Monarez, reviewed Anthropic’s findings and she didn’t mince words.
Advanced AI increases the opportunities to “let bad actors hide in plain sight, using seemingly legitimate research to create pathogens we may not see coming and may not be able to stop once released.”
Anthropic didn’t deny the danger. The company has strengthened its safeguards on newer models, and is asking other AI labs to do the same.
Because this era’s mad scientist doesn’t have an evil laugh. Just a VPN and really specific questions about immune evasion.
I’m not ready for another pandemic. - TL