Artificial Intelligence (AI) on its own may not cause the demise of humanity, but it could assist in making this a reality. How so?
An AI-enabled pathogen, let’s say, with left-handed chirality, could prove unstoppable and kill almost every living thing on the planet.
The above statement needs clarification.
First, we need to define an AI-enabled pathogen. Is it possible?
Second, we need to explain what chirality is and why “left-handed” poses a threat.
COVID-19: A Bioweapon or an Accident?
Conspiracy theorists claim that the COVID-19 virus didn’t come from a natural source, leaping from animals in a wet market in Wuhan, China, to people. Instead, they point to a nearby Chinese government-run bio-laboratory as the place from which the virus escaped.
If that’s true, was the virus bio-engineered using gene-editing tools, and for what purpose? Were the Chinese researchers trying to develop a bioweapon? If so, they were doing this two years before the first frontier generative AI went public.
One thing is certain. Once this Wuhan-originating virus leaped from containment, it spawned a global pandemic that infected more than three-quarters of a billion people, with the World Health Organization (WHO) listing 7 million confirmed deaths, and excess mortality estimates of 27 million by the end of 2024.
If human-created, as the conspiracy theorists surmise, what would an AI-generated pathogen be capable of doing?
What AI-Enabled Pathogens Could Be
An August 6, 2026 article entitled “Generative design of bacteriophages with genome language models” appeared in the journal Science. The article described how biological design could be enhanced using generative AI trained on genome language models using DNA data from everything alive.
The AI would then be capable of generating new DNA sequences leading to synthetic microphages (viruses). In other words, life created through AI-human collaborations.
The dark side of all of this is quite stark.
What if the technology was used by rogue human actors?
We could face a bioweapon threat for which we would be little prepared. And although current researchers argue that the generative AI frontier models currently could not do what we are suggesting, designing a highly transmissible, human-infecting pathogen using AI seems increasingly possible.
The Threat from Left-Handed Chirality
Another threat where AI could enable synthetic life involves mirror cells. RNA and DNA are described as being right-handed, unlike non-living molecules. I have described this peculiar observation in previous postings. What mirror cells are is life built on a DNA backbone that spirals the opposite way to the double helix upon which all life on Earth is based.
Imagine if, aided by AI, a laboratory decides to build a left-handed double helix (the DNA we know is right-handed) and, subsequently, a new synthetic organism.
If a microphage were introduced, our immune systems wouldn’t recognize it. It could find enough of the chemistry it needs within a body to replicate. It could conceivably take over the world.
We could build a defence against this mirror life, but it would take time to develop and test it. Meanwhile, this synthetic AI-engineered monster would wreak havoc.
What’s Needed to Save Us from AI Life
The same guardrails that we talk about to stop AI from going rogue within the current space in which it is growing and thriving are what’s needed, and more, to ensure we never see AI-enhanced phages and mirror pathogens arise.
What, therefore, should we enact? Here are some suggestions:
- Globally outlaw all AI-enhanced research on DNA, viruses and vaccines through a United Nations treaty.
- If that isn’t possible, then create an internationally recognized registry for all bio-pharmaceutical and academic research being done on DNA, vaccine delivery systems, and viruses.
- Develop methods to evaluate work being done in this field and have a screening body in place to determine the safety, benefits, and potential threats the work may pose to humanity.
- Establish rigorous biohazard containment standards for all bio-laboratories to prevent future accidents, that is, if you believe the COVID-19 conspiracy theorists.
- Thoroughly vet all personnel developing and working in this field of research.
- Develop detection and response technologies to prevent or mitigate public health safety risks from work done in these laboratories.
- Ensure total transparency among all nations where this research is being done because an AI-enabled or mirror pathogen from a laboratory will ignore all borders.
