THE company behind ChatGPT has warned that future versions of its artificial intelligence (AI) tool could be used to create bioweapons.
AI has long been hailed for its potential in future medical breakthroughs, by helping scientists create new drugs and faster vaccines.
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But in a recent blog post, ChatGPT creator OpenAI has warned that as its chatbot becomes more advanced in biology, it could use its intelligence to produce “harmful information”.
That includes, according to OpenAI, the ability to “assist highly skilled actors in creating bioweapons.”
“Physical access to labs and sensitive materials remains a barrier,” the blog post continued. “However those barriers are not absolute.”
Since its initial release in late 2022, ChatGPT has only gotten smarter.
Bosses believe upcoming models will reach “‘high’ levels of capability in biology”.
That’s why they say they are taking precautions to prevent ChatGPT from helping to build a bio-threat.
Bioweapons are devices or agents that cause disease, injury or death to humans, livestock and even plants.
“We don’t think it’s acceptable to wait and see whether a bio threat event occurs before deciding on a sufficient level of safeguards,” the company wrote.
In a statement to Axios, OpenAI safety head Johannes Heidecke clarified that future versions of ChatGPT probably won’t be able to manufacture bioweapons on its own.
However, the AI chatbot might still be advanced enough to help amateurs do so.
“We’re not yet in the world where there’s like novel, completely unknown creation of biothreats that have not existed before,” Heidecke said.
“We are more worried about replicating things that experts already are very familiar with.”
OpenAI said it has worked with experts on biosecurity, bioweapons, and bioterrorism to shape ChatGPT and the information it can give users.
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the US, where letters containing deadly anthrax spores were mailed to several news outlet offices, are the most recent confirmed use of a bioweapon.
To prevent a scenario where a novice can develop a bioweapon with the helping hand of ChatGPT, future models need to be programmed to “near perfection” to both recognise and alert human monitors to any dangers, Heidecke explained.
“This is not something where like 99 percent or even one in 100,000 performance is sufficient,” he said.
Last year, top scientists warned that AI could produce bioweapons that may one day make humans extinct.
The report they co-authored said governments have a responsibility to stop AI being developed with worrying capabilities, such that could be used in biological or nuclear warfare.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool created by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI.
After launching in November 2022, the AI chatbot has since exploded in both popularity and its own clever abilities.
ChatGPT is a language model that can produce text.
It can converse, generate readable text on demand and produce images and video based on what has been learned from a vast database of digital books, online writings and other media.
ChatGPT essentially works like a written dialogue between the AI system and the person asking it questions.
Although it now has a voice mode that gives it a voice to talk with humans like a phone call.
GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer and describes the type of model that can create AI-generated content.
If you prompt it, for example ask it to “write a short poem about flowers,” it will create a chunk of text based on that request.
ChatGPT can also hold conversations and even learn from things you’ve said.
It can handle very complicated prompts and is even being used by businesses to help with work.
But note that it might not always tell you the truth.
“ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in 2022.
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