10 big projects for reducing bio x-risk
The field of people working on reducing bio x-risk is distressingly small. I sketch out 10 big, urgent projects I'd be excited for new people to come work on and own.
Engineered pathogens pose a grave threat to society, plausibly constituting an existential risk [1] (‘x-risk’) to humanity. [2] Yet remarkably few people are working full-time on this problem. By my count, there are ~160 people on the planet whose full-time job is reducing bio x-risk. [3] This entire group could fit on a single short-haul flight. As one point of comparison, something like 200+ organizations are working on AI safety – a problem area that is neglected in its own right (relative to its scale). [4] This is bad. We have a short bench, and only limited time to solve this problem: AI
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related reading
- Ten AI safety projects I'd like people to work onthirdthing.ai
- How I think about catastrophic biological risk (part I): risk breakdown by type of responsedefensesindepth.bio
- The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Riskdefensesindepth.bio
- Preventing catastrophic pandemics | 80,000 Hours80000hours.org
- Reasons to be pessimistic (and optimistic) on the future of biosecurityowlposting.com
- How to Solve AI Biosecuritythecounterfactual.substack.com
- Ten AI safety projects I'd like people to work on — LessWronglesswrong.com
- The Four Pillars: A Hypothesis for Countering Catastrophic Biological Riskforum.effectivealtruism.org
- Your Solution Doesn't Know Your Problem Existsblog.atlascomputing.org
- A biosecurity playbook for AI companies — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- A call for biosecurity fieldbuilding — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- What are the most pressing world problems? | 80,000 Hours80000hours.org