Tacit Knowledge: The Missing Factor in AI Bio Risk Assessments

This is the second installment in a series examining the potential for AI to lower the bar to creation and use of bioweapons, written by Golden Gate Institute for AI’s Abi Olvera. Part one explains why bioweapons are difficult to create and rarely used. This installment (which you can read without reading part one) presents the importance of “tacit knowledge” – including muscle memory and sense memory critical to delicate lab procedures. I found this essay to be interesting for two reasons. First, it’s a fascinating exploration of a subject I knew nothing about – and an excellent example of important skills that current AI training methods don’t seem to capture. Second, it helps explain why some parts of the AI safety community may be overestimating the bioweapons threat, at least in the near to mid-term.If you wanted to build a bioweapon, the first thing you’d notice is that finding instructions isn’t the hard part.Published protocols1 exist for most of the relevant techniques.…