OpenAI says it has briefed White House on new AI model 'connected' to bio weapons

OpenAI has officially briefed the White House and multiple federal agencies on its brand-new biodefense initiative even as the AI company launched a specialised AI tool designed to help researchers develop new pandemic preparedness and biodefense capabilities. Called the Rosalind Biodefense Program, the initiative will grant “trusted developers” access to a highly specialised model called GPT-Rosalind to aid in life sciences research and public health defense.The announcement comes at a critical time, as experts increasingly warn that AI technologies carry massive implications for biosecurity, including the potential risk of accelerating the creation of dangerous biological weapons, a report in Axios mentions.To get the technology into the right hands, OpenAI plans to sponsor access to the GPT-Rosalind model and provide direct technical support for a wide array of public health efforts. The program is said to be built to support organisations working across the entire life cycle of biological threats, which range from initial prevention to medical countermeasure development.According to OpenAI, the new tool will be utilised for critical, long-horizon public health missions, including early detection and screening to identify emerging biological anomalies before they spread.It will also help in Epidemiological modeling which is nothing but simulating how diseases and biological agents move through populations. And finally, it will help in designing non-pharmaceutical interventions and safety protocols to manage public health emergencies.Due to the sensitive nature of biosecurity data, OpenAI is keeping a tight lock on who can use the technology. The company confirmed it is currently in the process of involving federal agencies focused specifically on public health.The ChatGPT-maker is expanding access to the GPT-Rosalind model to select branches of the US government, alongside allied international partners, to directly reinforce national biodefense and global public health infrastructure.