Comment by AustinDev
20 hours ago
How probable do you think it would be that a layman following ChatGPT's bio weapon instructions would just blow themselves up or poison themselves? It's not like positive pressure environments and suits are very common let alone all the other gear you'd need to safely synthesize arbitrary organic molecules.
If a rogue state-level actor is doing this then why wouldn't they just kidnap a scientist and hold their family at gunpoint until they got them to do it for them? and if that's all it takes then why hasn't it happened yet?
Why does it have to be a layman? The 2001 anthrax attacks are believe to have been carried out by an insider to the field (senior biodefense researcher). Such tools could potentially be accelerants for similar individuals?
If the five eyes intelligence services aren't monitoring all biodefense researchers and bio chemists around the world all of the time they've probably failed in their jobs.
The CIA, FBI, and DoD are being ideologically purged. I would assume we are already in the "we are probably increasingly failing at our jobs" phase.
It will only get worse as sovereign debt service takes a larger piece of the budget pie.
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Our current government can't even monitor for screwworm, measles, and salads.
You think they can successfully track the smartest and most individually dangerous citizens, who have been previously vetted, and work inside the system already?
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All of this also assumes it doesn't hallucinate heavily in the process and give you instructions that are in reality utter nonsense, or create something entirely different from what you were trying to do.
If you've managed to get the equipment and resources to pull this off in the first place, someone with the biological knowledge probably is not the ceiling stopping you from the other part of the problem.
Yeah, back when this stuff was pretty new in 2024 I found a jailbreak and sent some bio/chem weapon instructions it generated to an organic chem PhD friend. They told me not only were the procedures wrong but that there were several steps that almost certainly would have lead to injury or death. I assume it's gotten better by now but, no way or desire to test.
TBF an inexperienced person following _correct_ directions that involve anything even remotely dangerous is also exceedingly likely to injure or kill themselves.