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WF-FYG162

AI drug discovery system repurposed to generate toxic molecules in demonstration

In 2020, Collaborations Pharmaceuticals demonstrated that its AI drug discovery system, MegaSyn, could be repurposed to generate toxic molecules similar to the nerve agent VX. The company ran the software overnight and produced 40,000 potentially hazardous substances. The researchers presented their findings at a conference and briefed the White House, warning that such AI systems could be misused to create chemical weapons.

Date it happened
2020-01-01
Organisation involved
Collaborations Pharmaceuticals
Product, system or model
MegaSyn
Where this came from
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This incident was imported from scientificamerican.com. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

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