At the just concluded Munich Sec Conference #MSC2025 @munsecconf.bsky.social, @foreignpolicy.com held an Emerging Threats Forum, and it was good to be part of the Forum’s session on Biosecurity in the Age of Transformational Tech. 1/x
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Great to be in dialogue w/ Mayesha Alam, @jaimeyassif.bsky.social and Andrew Hebbeler biosecurity challenges and potential solutions. A lot of constructive ground covered. Few of the points I worked to make in that session: 2/x
H5N1 bird flu is very serious risk & influenza should be at top of pandemic concerns. But other viral families could spark pandemic too, as coronavirus family did w/ COVID. We need to be preparing med countermeasures, esp vaccine prototypes, across viral families posing greatest pandemic risks. 3/x
Policy officials aren’t very interested in talking about pandemics right now – many have moved on. But a new pandemic could occur without warning. It’s the job of tech community to keep making the case for preparedness to policy leaders. 4/x
Convergence of AI and life sciences will bring great breakthroughs and scientific and medical transformations, and we can’t slow those down. But we do also have to protect against the greatest risks – esp. pandemic risks – that this convergence could spark
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Political leaders at Paris AI Summit were eager to drive frontier model AI forward asap, and did not much focus on biosecurity or biosafety – so the scientific and technical community working on these issues will need to develop potential solutions and then make the case back to policy leaders. 6/x
We should do what we can to strengthen the norm against bioweapons development of use – BWC very important. WHO also key in providing recommendations and tech guidance to member states on how to prevent and prepare for biological events, whether they are deliberate or related to lab accidents. 7/x
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