Advancing Biosecurity in the Age of AI: Integrating Novel Detection, Suppression, and Evaluation Approaches

Civilization confronts a growing challenge: advancing transformative biological science while safeguarding against catastrophic misuse, a tension amplified by the rapid convergence between biology and artificial intelligence. The COVID-19 pandemic starkly revealed our vulnerabilities to self-replicating, exponential biological phenomena, yet current defenses remain dangerously inadequate—often blind to novel pathogens until too late and lacking barriers against rapid airborne transmission. This thesis argues that robust biosecurity enables, rather than hinders, progress, and advances three key defensive capabilities. First, it evaluates blood metagenomics for pathogen-agnostic surveillance, reanalyzing public datasets to quantify viral signatures and guide the implementation of much-needed early-warning systems sensitive to novel pathogens. Second, it advances far-UVC, a type of ultraviolet between 200-235 nm, for continuous indoor air disinfection, critically assessing its safety profile through an international expert review and establishing research priorities essential for deploying this vital physical defense against airborne threats. Third, it develops rigorous methodologies for evaluating AI's rapidly evolving biological capabilities, benchmarking frontier models across diverse tasks to track progress, reveal limitations in current assessments, and guide responsible innovation in this powerful dual-use technology. Collectively, these contributions help accelerate technologies to mitigate biological risks, thereby helping secure the conditions for continued, beneficial advancement of biology in the age of AI.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Justen, Lennart J.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Esvelt, Kevin

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/164266

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/164266