Biological weapons: The weaponization of disease
Biological weapons are prohibited under international law. But new developments in biotech and AI are a cause for concern. DW addresses some of the most important questions about their history, risks, and control.
The weaponization of disease, specifically through biological weapons, is a growing concern in the age of advanced biotechnology and artificial intelligence. With AI's ability to analyze and alter pathogens at unprecedented speeds, experts warn that modern technologies could be misused to develop biological weapons, particularly by non-state actors.
US security head Ken McCallum highlighted the risk from existing or new biological weapons in October 2026, and Anthropic, an AI company, reported blocking numerous attempts to use its AI assistant Claude to support biological weapon research.
Anthropic identified grant applications for gain-of-function research and projects to study avian influenza variants transmissible to mammals, emphasizing that such research could have both military and medical applications. The difficulty in separating legitimate scientific research from its potential misuse poses a significant challenge in regulating modern biotechnologies.
Biological weapons, which include pathogens like plague, smallpox, anthrax, and botulinum toxin, are defined as the targeted release of biological substances to injure people, animals, or plants. They consist of a biological substance (agent) and a delivery mechanism, such as missiles or contaminated food.
The first Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) came into force in 1975, prohibiting the development, stockpiling, acquisition, and transfer of biological weapons. However, a comparable system for controlling biological weapons does not exist, as states fear that inspections could expose sensitive research data in fields like medicine and biotechnology.
The ban on biological weapons has proven insufficient, as demonstrated by the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, where five people died after receiving letters containing anthrax spores.
Written by urgent.news from DW News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
