Chile has become the first South American country to eliminate dog-transmitted rabies to humans, according to the World Health Organization
‘This is unacceptable’
Current chatbots aren’t likely to help lone actors invent a deadly pathogen, experts say. But newer models, trained in biology, may need stronger safeguards.
This week's dire warnings about unchecked artificial intelligence destroying humanity are refocusing attention on how models already are being used in dangerous bioscience experiments — and the lack of safeguards. Why it matters: There's growing alarm about emerging risks from advances like AI-designed viruses. But it's hard to erect guardrails when there's no ironclad way of even knowing how some AI systems will act. - AI-enabled bioweapons are one of the worst-case scenarios researchers have raised for the kind of catastrophic danger that could wipe out humanity. Driving the news: On Thursday, Anthropic disclosed that it disrupted five potential instances of actors using its models in ways that could support the development of…
Reminiscent of Orson Welles' "The Third Man": Every stolen antibiotic or antiretroviral resold through a back-channel pharmacy represents both a taxpayer dollar that bought nothing and a patient who got an expired, mishandled, or counterfeit dose instead of treatment.
JOE ALLEN: 9/11 happened, Patriot Act was signed, and the infrastructure built up for decades would be used not just against terrorists overseas, but dissenters on our soil. Fast forward to 2020: biosurveillance, contact tracing, and vaccination ops were facilitated by Palantir through their data analytics.
AI researchers shook the world Tuesday when they publicly acknowledged that there's a non-zero chance of AI killing off humanity in the next decade. Why it matters: AI doomsday fears have existed for years, but as the technology has become more powerful and embedded in our lives, those warnings are breaking into the mainstream. State of play: Anthropic researchers are sounding the alarm that rogue versions of superintelligent AI could destroy humanity. - Anthropic's Jacob Coxon wrote on X: "No other human activity poses this level of danger." So how would AI kill us all, exactly? Experts generally worry about two broad paths to catastrophe: humans weaponizing extremely powerful AI, or humans losing control of it. - In these scenarios,…
The New World screwworm was eradicated from the United States decades ago, but it has recently returned to the region, reports say
As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.
For the first time in a year, the U.S.-Mexico border partly reopened to cattle imports following a screwworm infestation across the region. The battle against the flesh-eating fly has only just begun deep in Mexico.