Por Deepa Seetharaman
SAN FRANCISCO, United States – , announced this Thursday that it will invest in a startup focused on preventing malicious agents from creating biological weapons with the help of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI is the lead investor in a $15 million round in Red Queen Bio, which is trying to ensure that the AI industry’s defenses are growing at least as quickly as those seeking to explore models to harm humans, said the startup’s co-founder Hannu Rajaniemi.
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The investment is part of a broader effort by OpenAI to attract startups seeking to counter the risks posed by AI. Last month, the company backed Valthos, a New York-based producer of biosafety software. OpenAI chief strategy officer Jason Kwon said the company will consider investing in other startups focused on similar problems.
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“We want to increase the overall resilience of the overall ecosystem,” Kwon said. “One of the best ways to address risk mitigation is with more technology.”
Researchers and safety advocates say AI technology could soon speed up drug development or design new vaccines. But these same resources can facilitate the development of powerful new biological weapons by malicious actors.
Red Queen Bio was created from Helix Nano, a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company that has been using AI in drug development. Helix Nano also worked with OpenAI to create tests to determine the biohazards of AI, Kwon said.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and board member Nicole Seligman, who have previously invested in Helix Nano, will receive shares in Red Queen Bio as part of the transaction. Kwon is indirectly an investor through Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley startup incubator. The executive’s stake is valued at less than US$2,500, OpenAI reported.
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Red Queen Bio will rely on AI models, as well as more traditional laboratory experiments, to discover new risks and develop new defenses. The startup’s name comes from a scene in Lewis Carroll’s book, Through the Looking-Glass.
“It was clear that biological resources were advancing faster than we anticipated,” Rajaniemi said. ‘We felt we needed to start developing defenses.’
Other investors in Red Queen Bio are Cerberus Ventures, Fifty Years and Halcyon Futures.
