“It took an artificial intelligence just six hours to come up with 40,000 potentially lethal molecules, including some that resemble VX, one of the most toxic substances in existence. The responsible researchers say this is a “wake-up call.”
“The experiment was carried out by researchers from Collaborations Pharmaceuticals. The company actually uses machine learning to research drugs and new treatment options for rare diseases. As part of the Spiez Convergence, a conference on developments that could impact the biological weapons conventions, the scientists gave their AI a slightly different assignment.”
“In fact, as the paper‘s lead author, Fabio Urbina, explains to The Verge, AI studies molecules for their toxicity in order to create drugs that aren’t dangerous. For the conference, however, the scientists were asked to turn this principle around in order to simulate what could happen if such artificial intelligence fell into the wrong hands.”