• OpenAI has partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to explore the safe uses of AI in bioscientific research.
  • This collaboration aims to advance AI biosecurity research, building on OpenAI's work on biothreat risks.

OpenAI, lately, has been on a headline-making spree by collaborating with giants like Apple. 

Recently, the artificial intelligence (AI) giant has made another top headline by partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to study how AI can be used safely by scientists in laboratory settings to advance bioscientific research. 

“As a private company dedicated to serving the public interest, we’re thrilled to announce a first-of-its-kind partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory to study bioscience capabilities,” said Mira Murati, OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer. “This partnership marks a natural progression in our mission, advancing scientific research, while also understanding and mitigating risks.” 

Not to mention, LANL, first established in New Mexico during World War II, is the same lab responsible for building the first atomic bomb in the world.

OpenAI and LANL’s Bioscience Division are evaluating how frontier models like GPT-4o can assist humans in physical laboratory tasks using multimodal capabilities like vision and voice. This includes biological safety evaluations for GPT-4o and its unreleased real-time voice systems to support bioscience research. 

“AI is a powerful tool that has the potential for great benefits in the field of science, but, as with any new technology, comes with risks,” said Nick Generous, deputy group leader for Information Systems and Modeling at Los Alamos.  "At Los Alamos this work will be led by the laboratory's new AI Risks Technical Assessment Group, which will help assess and better understand those risks.”

Furthermore, OpenAI believes that this study will contribute to AI biosecurity research, building on its existing work on biothreat risks and its Preparedness Framework which outlines the approach to tracking, evaluating, forecasting, and protecting against model risks. 

The AI giant has further emphasized AI's potential to accelerate scientific progress by mentioning Moderna and Color Health. Moderna is using OpenAI's tech to enhance clinical trials with a data-analysis assistant, while Color Health has developed a GPT-4-powered copilot to help healthcare providers make informed decisions about cancer screening and treatment. 

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah