Preparing for AI-enabled bioweapons

We must prepare to live with even deeper uncertainty about whether emerging infectious threats are natural or man-made, and whether they have been accidentally or deliberately released.

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We don't know when the next epidemic or pandemic will hit, or where the next infectious threat will emerge. But we do know that the nature of the threat is constantly evolving. One of the most sobering takeaways from this year's Munich Security Conference was that AI-enabled gene editing has radically lowered the barrier to developing genetically engineered bioweapons.

At a conference typically dominated by geopolitics and the threat of armed conflict, the prospect of bioweapons developed by non-state actors steered the conversation towards the neglected topic of global health security.

Policymakers are now focusing on what capacities we have, and what additional capacities we will need, to detect and respond to this threat - as well they should.

Of course, from a public-health perspective, it may ultimately be irrelevant whether an infectious pathogen is man-made or deliberately released. What matters most for those of us concerned with saving lives and protecting health is that we are ready and able to detect and respond to infectious threats wherever - and however - they emerge.