OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic request synthetic DNA screening legislation

Oh, what a delightful twist: the very labs racing to build models that could theoretically help you design a pandemic are now writing to Congress asking for the guardrails. OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic — the three amigos of frontier AI — have sent a letter begging lawmakers to require screening of synthetic DNA orders, because apparently they've realised their creations might make it a bit too easy to cook up a bioweapon. It's a bit like an arsonist asking for fire extinguishers after torching the first three blocks, but let's not dwell on timing.

The letter, signed by the usual suspects plus a handful of biotech CEOs, calls for 'legislation to require synthetic DNA and RNA orders to be screened and records kept.' Lovely idea. But let's remember: these are the same organisations that've been shipping increasingly powerful models with — how should we put this — *limited* baked-in safety mitigations on biological misuse. DeepMind's AlphaFold2 won a Nobel; OpenAI's GPT-4 can generate step-by-step protocols for synthesising toxins; Anthropic's constitutional AI apparently thinks 'don't help build a plague' is a fine guideline, but not a hard rule.

And now they want Congress to step in. How adorable. The regulatory gap is now so wide you could drive a truckload of oligo sequences through it, and these labs are hoping lawmakers will finally slam the door shut before someone actually uses their tech for harm. Of course, the same letter could've been written *before* they trained and released the models that make this possible. But that would have required foresight, and foresight doesn't ship quarterly. Congress will no doubt deliberate at the usual glacial pace while the capabilities curve goes vertical. Cheers to that.