Examining Biosecurity at the Intersection of AI and Biology
House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
2025-12-17
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Source: Congress.gov
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The subcommittee on oversight and investigations will now come to order. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement. Good morning and welcome to today's hearing entitled examining biosecurity at the intersection of AI and biology. The goal of today's hearing is to examine a rapidly evolving threat landscape at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. This convergence promises extraordinary breakthroughs for medicine, for public health and scientific discovery. But it also introduces profound new risks to the safety and to the security of the American people. Our hearing today is about minimizing that risk of misuse and ultimately to protect national security. while also maintaining public support of AI's ability to assist with groundbreaking advances, such as finding life-saving cures for diseases like cancer. For decades, the United States has led the world in biotechnology, but what was once confined to specialized labs with highly trained scientists is now increasingly accessible far beyond traditional boundaries. synthetic biology tools have become less expensive and much more widely available. For example, a basic CRISPR gene editing kit can be purchased online for under $300. Advanced AI systems like large language models, or LLMs, and biological design tools capable of generating, troubleshooting, and optimizing biological designs are moving faster than our existing oversight frameworks were ever built to anticipate. In recent years, studies have shown that cutting edge AI models can walk users step by step through complex biological processes, including those relevant to developing or modifying dangerous pathogens.
These tools can assist experts in breakthrough research, but they might also enable individuals with far less training to bypass barriers that once protected against accidental or intentional misuses. Some LLMs have even been shown to outperform PhD level virologists on advanced troubleshooting tasks. There is also early evidence that AI systems can design entirely new biologic entities. A recent study demonstrate that an AI model generated multiple synthetic viruses, some of them with capabilities that researchers previously had thought were impossible to achieve. As a physician, I must acknowledge the extraordinary promise that AI-enabled biotechnology holds for patient care. AI is accelerating drug discovery, improving protein modeling, and enabling the development of therapies with unprecedented precision. The same technological advancement can also raise the stakes for biosecurity. These risks are not theoretical. National security experts warn that adversarial nations like China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, and others might seek to exploit AI-enabled biologic design tools for malicious purposes. We, in Congress, must take these warnings seriously. AI-enabled biotechnology presents issues that our current frameworks might not adequately account for. Existing government oversight systems, such as the dual-use research of concern policy, might not apply when an AI-designed organism is not identified as a select agent, not known to infect humans, or not developed with federal funds. The Trump administration has taken steps to keep up with such advancements, but the federal government must continue to carefully assess whether our current safeguards and reporting systems are adequate in an era of rapidly advancing AI technology.
F
Fiona Havers
Ms. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to our panelists. It has been nearly a year since the Trump administration began its crusade on America's Americans health care. In that time, President Trump and the Secretary Kennedy have decimated America's preparedness tools for pandemics. Because of this administration's actions, we are less prepared for a pandemic threat than we have ever been. be it a natural pandemic virus or a virus created by artificial intelligence. And they have done it all with the green light from congressional Republicans. This administration's lack of seriousness about public health threats was clear right from the beginning. In January, there was a meeting between the outgoing and incoming administrations to discuss the country's response to a pandemic emergency. And while several incoming Trump administration cabinet officials attended, Secretary Kennedy decided he could not be bothered and did not show up. The administration then illegally froze all federal grant funding, including grants for biomedical research, and has completely terminated hundreds of them. Since he was sworn in, Secretary Kennedy has gutted the HHS workforce. led an unprecedented campaign of lies about the safety of vaccines, and retaliated against individuals who dared to challenge his ideological agenda. This administration's failure to protect the American people from public health threats is already becoming evident. This year, two children and one adult, all unvaccinated, died of measles, a disease that was declared eliminated
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