AI and the regulation of recombinant DNA
I was in college during the dawning of molecular cloning. By 1981, I was using recombinant DNA in my PhD research, and within a few months of starting my postdoc in 1982, I was engineering clones. In my career, I’ve made libraries of recombinant DNA molecules in bacteria and engineered dozens of transgenic fruit flies. The current fears over unregulated AI reminded me immediately of the fears raised about recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s. “ In two urgent letters in 1973 and 1974 , scientists first called for “prudence” — the same word used this month by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei in his 3,800-word plea for regulation of A.I. Then they called for a moratorium on all recombinant DNA work until it could be done safely. “ Work stopped until scientists gathered at Asilomar aiming to come up with regulations to end the moratorium. Organizers warned the group, which included scientists from other countries including the Soviet Union, that if they couldn’...