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No chemical killer AI (yet)

Nature Machine Intelligence volume 4, pages 506–507 (2022)Cite this article

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I definitely had a ‘yikes’ moment when Sean Ekins presented the work at the Spiez conference, even though the exact details of the model remained opaque (and there are good reasons why these details were obscured in the Comment article4). The model generated some very toxic known nerve agents among the resulting dataset comprising 40,000 compounds. It is also safe to assume that among those that diverged from the known chemical space, there will be some that are extremely toxic. So yes, there is clearly a misuse potential, and raising awareness of this potential is a merit of the article.

However, two major questions need to be addressed: is ‘more toxic than VX’ a sufficient qualifier for new chemical agents, and why should someone choose to make new toxic compounds via this approach and not just stick to what is already around? The answer to the latter question depends on who ‘someone’ is.

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Fig. 1: The nerve agents VX (top) and EA-3148 (Substance 100A) (bottom).

References

  1. Urbina, F., Lentzos, F., Invernizzi, C. & Ekins, S. Nat. Mach. Intell. 4, 189–191 (2022).

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  2. Edwards, C. MURDER-BOT Killer AI invented 40,000 ‘lethal chemical weapons’ in just six hours – leaving scientists terrified. The Sun https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4925922/killer-ai-invents-lethal-chemical-weapons/ (2022).

  3. Spiez Convergence. Report on the fourth workshop 10, 13 – 15 September 2021 https://www.spiezlab.admin.ch/content/spiezlab-internet/en/home/meta/refconvergence/_jcr_content/contentPar/tabs_copy/items/29_1597229737326/tabPar/downloadlist/downloadItems/1_1638252490910.download/LaborSpiezConvergence2021_en.pdf (2021).

  4. Nat. Mach. Intell. 4, 313 (2022).

  5. Commission on Life Sciences. Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents. Vol. 1, 7, 22, 29, E3 (The National Academies Press, 1982).

  6. Mirzayanov, V. S. State Secrets. An Insider’s Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program. 127–128 (Outskirts Press, 2009).

  7. Danzig, R. et al. Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons. Center for a New American Security https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep06323 (2012).

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  1. Blum – Scientific Services, Hamburg, Germany

    Marc-Michael Blum

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Correspondence to Marc-Michael Blum.

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Blum, MM. No chemical killer AI (yet). Nat Mach Intell 4, 506–507 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-022-00497-1

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