OpenAI is partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory to investigate the benefits and risks of using generative AI in active laboratories. This collaboration aims to explore how AI can advance scientific research.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has highlighted generative AI's potential to enhance human understanding of science. However, there are concerns about the technology's misuse, such as enabling the development of bioweapons.
The initial experiment will involve AI assisting individuals without molecular biology expertise in basic biomedical tasks. Specifically, the AI will help genetically engineered E. coli bacteria produce insulin. OpenAI believes this is a groundbreaking experiment that could identify research areas where generative AI systems can be most beneficial.
Tejal Patwardhan, a technical lead on OpenAI's preparedness team, emphasized the importance of evaluating AI models in real-world scientific settings. "We want these advanced models to contribute to scientific progress — and evaluating them in a setting where scientists work is one of the first steps toward realizing their potential," she said.
Nick Generous, a deputy group leader at Los Alamos, stressed the significance of understanding AI's role in labs. "Many great things can happen, but we want to make sure that if any risks do get introduced, we can at least identify and mitigate them before they become a problem," he said.
OpenAI's research team previously discovered that GPT-4 provided a "mild uplift" in delivering information that could lead to the creation of biological threats. However, those experiments were limited to text-based tasks. The collaboration with Los Alamos will combine text, vision, and voice data to assess AI's potential in practical lab applications.
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