In Support of Mandatory Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening and Recordkeeping

A coalition of AI and biotechnology leaders, including Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman, and Dario Amodei, is urging Congress to mandate screening and recordkeeping for all orders of synthetic nucleic acids and DNA synthesis equipment. The group warns that rapid advances in AI are eroding knowledge barriers that have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons, making voluntary industry safeguards insufficient. The signatories argue that mandatory screening is a well-understood, minimally disruptive measure that would establish a consistent national standard and deter misuse of dual-use biotechnology.

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 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1490301/ of protocols to reconstruct viruses from strands of DNA more than two decades ago, it has also been recognized https://arep.med.harvard.edu/pdf/Bugl07.pdf 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 https://www.virologytest.ai/ 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 CEO, Google DeepMind; Recipient of 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Sam Altman CEO and Co-Founder, OpenAI Dario Amodei CEO and Co-Founder, Anthropic Alexandr Wang Chief AI Officer, Meta; Founder, Scale AI Paul Graham Founder, Y Combinator Mustafa Suleyman CEO, Microsoft AI Patrick Collison CEO and Co-Founder, Stripe Martin E. Hellman Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University; Recipient of 2015 ACM Turing Award Sayash Kapoor Researcher, Princeton University; Co-Author, AI Snake Oil ; Co-Author, AI as Normal Technology Peter Diamandis Founder and Executive Chairman, XPRIZE Foundation; Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Singularity University; Co-Founder and Vice Chairman, Celularity Eric Horvitz Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft Jason Kwon Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI Pushmeet Kohli Chief Scientist, Google Cloud; Vice President, Google DeepMind Wojciech Zaremba Head of AI Resilience, OpenAI Foundation; Co-Founder, OpenAI Geoff Ralston Founder, Safe AI Fund; Former President, Y Combinator Nathan Lambert Founder and Researcher, Interconnects AI Boaz Barak Member of Technical Staff, OpenAI; Professor, Harvard University Aviya Skowron Head of Policy, EleutherAI Jacob Trefethen Head of Life Sciences and Curing Diseases, OpenAI Foundation Ben Brooks Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University Nucleic Acid Synthesis Industry Emily Leproust CEO and Co-Founder, Twist Bioscience Jason T. Gammack CEO, Ansa Biotechnologies James C. Diggans Vice President for Policy & Biosecurity, Twist Bioscience; Chair of the Board of Directors, International Gene Synthesis Consortium Sridhar Govindarajan CTO, ATUM Patrick Finn President and Chief Operating Officer, Twist Bioscience Siyuan Chen Chief Technology Officer, Twist Bioscience Daniel Lin-Arlow CSO and Co-Founder, Ansa Biotechnologies Sebastian Palluk CTO and Co-Founder, Ansa Biotechnologies DJ Kleinbaum Co-Founder, Emerald Cloud Lab Kevin Flyangolts CEO and Founder, Aclid Piers Millet Executive Director, International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science IBBIS Life Sciences and Biotechnology David Baker Director, Institute for Protein Design; Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor of Biochemistry, University of Washington School of Medicine; Recipient of 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Drew Endy Bioengineer; Director for Bio-Strategies & Leadership, Hoover Institution, Stanford University David Haussler Scientific Director, UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute; Distinguished Professor, Biomolecular Engineering, UC Santa Cruz; Co-Founder, Global Alliance for Genomics and Health Kathleen McMahon Co-Founder, Valthos Sandeep Patel CEO and Founder, Catalyze; Former Director, BARDA DRIVe John Glass Professor and La Jolla, CA Campus Director, J. Craig Venter Institute David A. Relman Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in Medicine, Stanford University Hon. Mark R. Dybul Professor, Department of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center; Former Executive Director, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Former United States Global AIDS Coordinator Milana Trounce Clinical Professor in Emergency Medicine, Stanford University Chris Somerville Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley Tom Inglesby Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Kevin Esvelt Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab Becky Mackelprang Director for Security Programs, Engineering Biology Research Consortium Hannu Rajaniemi Co-Founder and CEO, HelixNano; Co-Founder, Red Queen Bio Nikolai Eroshenko Co-Founder, HelixNano; Co-Founder and CEO, Red Queen Bio Matthew F. McKnight CEO, Perimeter Gary Abel Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, Fourth Eon Biosecurity Jacob Glanville Founder and CEO, Centivax Rachel E. Levinson Visiting Scholar, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, Arizona State University National Security and Policy Gerald W. Parker Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Biosecurity and Pandemic Response, White House National Security Council Hon. Christine E. Wormuth President and CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative; 25th Secretary of the Army RADM Kenneth Bernard USPHS, Ret. Former Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense Hon. Richard Danzig 71st Secretary of the Navy Hon. Andy Weber Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs Lawrence Lessig Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School Alex T. Tabarrok Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics, Mercatus Center; Professor of Economics, George Mason University Abigail Ball Executive Director, American Compass Tristan Harris Co-Founder, Center for Humane Technology Zach Graves CEO and President, Foundation for American Innovation Alec Stapp CEO and Co-Founder, Institute for Progress Ian Mair CEO, Foundation for American Innovation Action Dean W. Ball Senior Fellow, Foundation for American Innovation Josh Wentzel Senior Fellow, Foundation for American Innovation Mallory Stewart CEO, Council on Strategic Risks Christine Parthemore Council on Strategic Risks Jason Crawford Founder and President, Roots of Progress Institute Claire Qureshi CEO and Co-Founder, Sentinel Bio Joshua Monrad Co-Founder, Sentinel Bio