ANTHROPIC LEADERS BACK AI-ERA BIODEFENSE STARTUP Two Anthropic leaders invested in Pilgrim, a startup developing technology to detect airborne biological threats such as Ebola and anthrax. Pilgrim raised $25 million at a $150 million valuation and has developed Argus, a sensor and genomic-sequencing system. The startup is working with the CDC as concerns grow over AI potentially increasing biological security risks.

With all the conversation about AI and bio right now, you need to go read Biohazard by Ken Alibek. Absolutely insane stories about monkeys, lab leaks, and national paranoia. The Soviet biological weapons program employed ~60,000 people. A single facility was built with the capacity to produce ~300 metric tons of weapons-grade anthrax in 10 months. For all the attention we give nuclear weapons, biological weapons feel strangely under-discussed. This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read about. It still blows my mind that this actually happened.

Hmm, OK? “I am the house now, so when we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Japanese, what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do,” Bessent said at a Southern Methodist University event in Texas on Tuesday. “And you can bet against me if you want.” I Am The Law via @YouTube @Anthrax #Anthrax#

Everyone knows about the Wuhan lab by now, but "Biological War" author @AnnieJacobsen reveals a far more terrifying truth: there are still THOUSANDS of high-containment biolabs operating across the globe RIGHT NOW: “There are 110 BSL-4 labs around the world. That's the maximum containment lab. And BSL-3, by the way, is just right below that. You can work with plague, hantavirus, anthrax, rabies in a BSL-3 lab. And there are 3,500 of those labs around the world. So, the idea of an accident is, you know, we're just right at that precipice. There was an existential sort of philosopher, Nick Bostrom, [who] spoke about AI maybe being human's last great invention. And I echo him, only I say that about genetic modification of germs. That could very well be 21st-century humans' last invention.”