Medvedev says AI threatens to create biological weapons

The rapid development of technology may lead to the emergence of new biological weapons created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). This was stated by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev on December 4.

Medvedev specified that the meeting of the interdepartmental commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on countering modern threats to biological security discussed promising areas of development of biological technologies.

"Their rapid development is not only new opportunities for the economy and social sphere, but also a whole range of threats, including biological terrorism and the creation of new biological weapons using artificial intelligence. At the moment, there are no effective tools to control the spread and use of biotechnologies in the world," he wrote on his page on the VKontakte social network.

According to Medvedev, this issue requires the expansion of international cooperation at least at the level of agreements between individual countries. But the Russian Security Council will continue to independently take measures to ensure Russia's biological security, he added.

Earlier, in August, Bloomberg reported that chatbots with AI are able to help users create biological weapons. The publication specified that in the spring of 2023, biochemist and former UN inspector Rocco Casagrande warned White House officials about the possibility of creating biological weapons with the help of chatbots. According to him, neural networks can help terrorists identify biological agents.