An Open Letter in Support of Mandatory Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening and Recordkeeping
As life sciences researchers, builders of AI and biotechnology, and experts with a wide range of views on how to approach AI policy, we call on legislators to make screening of orders for synthetic nucleic acids — and the equipment needed to make them — mandatory.
The ability to order synthetic DNA online has accelerated vaccine development, powered basic research, and made it possible for small teams to access capabilities that used to be confined to major institutions. Since the publication of protocols to reconstruct viruses from strands of DNA more than two decades ago, it has also been recognized as a point in the biotechnology supply chain where a bad actor could cause outsized harm. Recognizing the vulnerability, synthesis companies formed the International Gene Synthesis Consortium in 2009 to develop and implement voluntary safeguards against misuse.
While the issue is not new, the pace of progress in artificial intelligence is. AI systems now outperform PhD-level virologists on questions about highly technical laboratory procedures in their own domains of expertise. The evidence about what this means for present-day biosecurity threats is genuinely mixed, but the trend is hard to dispute. AI systems are improving rapidly, and alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode.
Support for screening does not depend on any particular view of AI; the biosecurity case has been recognized by scientists and governments for decades. Screening is also one of the best understood and least disruptive biosecurity measures available. It asks providers of synthesized DNA and manufacturers of synthesis machines to check synthesis requests for sequences of concern and to verify customer legitimacy before shipping orders. Providers should also record synthesis orders and sequence data to support legitimate biosecurity investigations, so that any threat that might evade initial screening can be traced back to its source — including when individual sequences would not raise concern in isolation. Awareness of traceability itself deters misuse.
Many of the largest and most responsible providers in the industry already screen and record orders voluntarily because it is well understood that they have an important role to play in maintaining public trust in and mitigating potential misuse of this important technology.
For these reasons, the undersigned support mandatory nucleic acid synthesis screening, including recordkeeping, in the United States.
Given the pace at which the underlying technology is changing, we believe the need is urgent. Congress should act this session, and we applaud the legislative efforts currently underway. To ensure a consistent national standard rather than a patchwork of conflicting laws, states should also consider implementing requirements based on existing federal and industry guidelines.
This is a rare moment of agreement across stakeholders that are often at odds. We hope policymakers will meet it with decisive action.
Sincerely,
Signatories
The undersigned —
Tech
Demis Hassabis<br>CEO, Google DeepMind; Recipient of 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Sam Altman<br>CEO and Co-Founder, OpenAI
Dario Amodei<br>CEO and Co-Founder, Anthropic
Alexandr Wang<br>Chief AI Officer, Meta; Founder, Scale AI
Paul Graham<br>Founder, Y Combinator
Mustafa Suleyman<br>CEO, Microsoft AI
Patrick Collison<br>CEO and Co-Founder, Stripe
Martin E. Hellman<br>Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University; Recipient of 2015 ACM Turing Award
Sayash Kapoor<br>Researcher, Princeton University; Co-Author, AI Snake Oil; Co-Author, AI as Normal Technology
Peter Diamandis<br>Founder and Executive Chairman, XPRIZE Foundation; Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Singularity University; Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, Celularity
Eric Horvitz<br>Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft
Jason Kwon<br>Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI
Pushmeet Kohli<br>Chief Scientist, Google Cloud; Vice President, Google DeepMind
Wojciech Zaremba<br>Head of AI Resilience, OpenAI Foundation; Co-Founder, OpenAI
Geoff Ralston<br>Founder, Safe AI Fund; Former President, Y Combinator
Nathan Lambert<br>Founder and Researcher, Interconnects AI
Boaz Barak<br>Member of Technical Staff, OpenAI; Professor, Harvard University
Aviya Skowron<br>Head of Policy, EleutherAI
Jacob Trefethen<br>Head of Life Sciences and Curing Diseases, OpenAI Foundation
Ben Brooks<br>Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University
Nucleic Acid Synthesis Industry
Emily Leproust<br>CEO and Co-Founder, Twist Bioscience
Jason T. Gammack<br>CEO, Ansa Biotechnologies
James C. Diggans<br>Vice President for Policy & Biosecurity, Twist Bioscience; Chair of the Board of Directors, International Gene Synthesis Consortium
Sridhar Govindarajan<br>CTO, ATUM
Patrick...