The perception that the convergence of biological engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) could enable increased biorisk has recently drawn attention to the governance of biotechnology and artificial intelligence. The 2023 Executive Order, Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, requires an assessment of how artificial intelligence can increase biorisk. Within this perspective, we present a simplistic framework for evaluating biorisk and demonstrate how this framework falls short in achieving actionable outcomes for a biorisk manager. We then suggest a potential path forward that builds upon existing risk characterization work and justify why characterization efforts of AI-enabled tools for engineering biology is needed.

翻译：生物工程与人工智能（AI）的融合可能加剧生物风险，这一认知近期引发了对生物技术与人工智能治理的关注。2023年《关于安全、可靠、可信地开发与使用人工智能的行政命令》要求评估人工智能如何增加生物风险。基于此视角，我们提出一个简化的生物风险评估框架，并阐明该框架在实现生物风险管理者可操作目标方面的局限性。随后，我们提出一条基于现有风险特征描述研究的潜在推进路径，并论证为何需要对人工智能赋能的工程生物学工具开展特征描述工作。