Bioweapons are essentially a solved problem already, “AI” or not. In the mid 20th century the USSR had enough weapons manufacturing capability through Biopreparat to kill every human on the planet in less than 30 days. In the 1920s France had enough poison gasses to kill every inhabitant of Europe at the time. America and Russia each still have enough thermonuclear warheads to kill 95% of the earth’s population in under 30 minutes. None of these are new technologies, literally all of this technology is 50-75 years old and hasn’t developed much since because you can’t do any better than “total annihilation”.
FireTower@lemmy.world
on 17 Oct 2023 21:08
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I think in a contemporary sense the concern is more about non state actors using them. Imagine a bio weapon being released on in a subway station, but no one knows what it is or how to treat it.
Sethayy@sh.itjust.works
on 18 Oct 2023 00:31
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This, all weapons today plant a massive target on their user. Unless you use a disease and just spread it naturally, there ain’t currently a great way to do lots of stealthy damage.
Take an AI or 2 and make the deadliest disease you can without any usual crispr red flags and you could easily hide among the masses
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Ugh, I’ve soiled myself with bioweapons
Different article about the same “report” being discussed here: lemmy.ml/post/6609951?scrollToComments=true
Babe wakeup, the new great filter just dropped.
Bioweapons are essentially a solved problem already, “AI” or not. In the mid 20th century the USSR had enough weapons manufacturing capability through Biopreparat to kill every human on the planet in less than 30 days. In the 1920s France had enough poison gasses to kill every inhabitant of Europe at the time. America and Russia each still have enough thermonuclear warheads to kill 95% of the earth’s population in under 30 minutes. None of these are new technologies, literally all of this technology is 50-75 years old and hasn’t developed much since because you can’t do any better than “total annihilation”.
I think in a contemporary sense the concern is more about non state actors using them. Imagine a bio weapon being released on in a subway station, but no one knows what it is or how to treat it.
This, all weapons today plant a massive target on their user. Unless you use a disease and just spread it naturally, there ain’t currently a great way to do lots of stealthy damage.
Take an AI or 2 and make the deadliest disease you can without any usual crispr red flags and you could easily hide among the masses