On February 10-11, 2025, world leaders and experts gathered in Paris for the AI Action Summit to discuss priorities for shaping the future of artificial intelligence and its impacts on society.
At the Summit, NTI | bio partnered with the RAND Corporation to convene an official side event, which was focused on safeguarding capabilities at the convergence of AI with the life sciences—commonly referred to as AIxBio capabilities. These capabilities can offer tremendous benefits to society, but they also pose significant risks of accidental or deliberate misuse, with the potential for severe global consequences. NTI | bio and RAND brought together policy makers and leading experts from AI Safety Institutes (AISIs), organizations that develop AI models, and the biosecurity community to discuss AIxBio governance priorities. The goals of the meeting were to:
“It is vital to develop more robust governance approaches and technical guardrails to protect the benefits of AIxBio capabilities—including rapid vaccine development—while guarding against accidental or deliberate misuse of these powerful technologies,” said NTI | bio Vice President Dr. Jaime Yassif, who co-chaired the meeting with Sella Nevo, director of RAND’s Meselson Center. “It is encouraging to see a growing network of AI Safety Institutes focused on these important issues, and it will be important for experts from industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations to support their work.”
Meeting participants highlighted the importance of reaching agreement among technical experts in defining red lines in AI capability development that present unacceptable biological risks—and the need to build political support among policy makers for such biorisk definitions. AI safety institute experts also noted the value of developing a comprehensive research agenda to map out priorities for exploring technical guardrails to safeguard AIxBio capabilities, and they agreed that collaborating with non-governmental experts to achieve this goal would be helpful in advancing their work. Participants discussed several avenues to foster collaboration among AISIs and with non-governmental experts, including expanding the AISI International Network—as called for in the 2024 Seoul Declaration2024 Seoul Declaration—and through AISI engagement in the AIxBio Global Forum. This Forum, established by NTI | bio in 2024, serves as a platform for international experts, policymakers, and key stakeholders to collaboratively advance practical solutions to safeguard capabilities at the convergence of AI and the life sciences.
AI safety is a critical priority within broader international discussions about advancing AI capabilities, and it is vital to ensure that AIxBio and biosecurity continue to be part of the conversation. NTI will continue to push for a strong emphasis on safety at future international AI summits, focusing on AI and biosecurity and incorporating emerging issues at the nexus of AI and nuclear security.
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NTI | bio has responded to the U.S. government request for information (RFI) related to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Plan outlined by President Donald Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order, providing input on the highest priority actions to maintain and extend U.S. global leadership on AI.
NTI will join world leaders and policy makers at the 2025 Munich Security Conference (MSC) where NTI Co-Chair and CEO Ernest J. Moniz and colleagues will host multiple side events focused on reducing nuclear, biological, and emerging technology threats imperiling humanity.
NTI | bio convened more than 25 high-level biosecurity professionals, AI experts, and policymakers for the inaugural meeting of the International AI-Bio Forum.
