ThinkTankWeekly

Can LLM Agents Select and Engage with Biological Tools? An Initial Biosecurity Assessment

RAND | 2026-06-25 | tech

Topics: AI, Europe, United States

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English Summary

The report assesses that Large Language Model (LLM) Agents pose an emerging biosecurity risk by potentially lowering the domain expertise barrier needed to select and operate sophisticated biological tools (BTs). While frontier LLMs demonstrate initial capability in identifying appropriate BTs, their ability to execute complex, contextualized tasks or maintain consistent operation is mixed and prone to errors. This suggests that non-expert malicious actors could gain access to dangerous biosecurity pathways. Policymakers must prioritize targeted research into the technical barriers at the intersection of AI and biotechnology to develop robust safeguards against misuse in biological weapons development.

中文摘要

本報告評估,大型語言模型(LLM)代理人構成一種新興的生物安全風險,因為它們可能降低選取和操作精密生物工具(BTs)所需的領域專業知識門檻。儘管前沿型LLMs在識別適當的BT方面展現了初步能力,但其執行複雜、具情境化任務或維持穩定運作的能力仍不一致且容易出錯。這表明非專業惡意行為者可能會獲得進入危險生物安全路徑的途徑。政策制定者必須將重點放在人工智慧與生物技術交集處的技術障礙研究,以開發強固的防範措施,防止其被用於生化武器的發展。

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