Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
Experts distinguish current LLMs—which lack embodied knowledge to guide weaponized pathogen design—from next-generation foundation models trained on biological datasets, which could materially lower barriers for non-state actors. This is forcing real decisions about model architecture and access controls now, before the capability gap closes. Biosecurity researchers are already mapping which training methodologies and safety mechanisms matter most, making this a near-term governance problem, not a distant concern.