alt Hacker NewsA halfway decent synthetic biology lab (no need to invoke CRISPR) can make e.g. smallpox without a sample of the original disease, just from the gene sequences. Basically all state actors could do this if they wanted to without an LLM. What barrier that a terrorist organization faces today to having a functioning synthetic biology lab does an LLM actually solve?
Replies
mnicky • yesterday at 6:46 AM
With current gaps in DNA synthesis screening yes. But this will be improved in the future hopefully.
> Basically all state actors could do this if they wanted to without an LLM.
The issue is non-state actors. That moves it from a ~hunderd to many billions.
BTW, according to my FOSS religious beliefs, I should be making the other side of the argument. This whole thing is tough.