Tencent's chief AI scientist Yao Shunyu says AI's bio abilities will soon make it "possible to do harm" and Anthropic has a "strong argument" for closed models (Vincent Chow/South China Morning Post)

Tencent Holdings’ chief AI scientist Yao Shunyu stated during a science symposium on Saturday that artificial intelligence models will soon reach a threshold of biological capability that makes it possible to do harm. Speaking at an event co-hosted by the Hong Kong Academy of Sciences and the Future Science Prize, Yao noted that while AI's application to medicine and biology could accelerate drug discovery, there are serious risks.

He cautioned that the bio abilities of models could eventually reach a level where they pose real dangers, and suggested that Anthropic has a strong argument for utilizing closed models.

According to the South China Morning Post, experts warn that malicious actors might use AI to produce bioweapons or potentially start a pandemic, particularly if such models are released as open-weight software. Yao emphasized that Chinese and any other open model companies must be responsible regarding these security and safety concerns.

The warnings come as Tencent explores using AI to automate scientific research. The Shenzhen-based company recently released its flagship model, Hy4, which Artificial Analysis benchmarking ranked as the second-best performing model produced in China.

Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, South China Morning Post, SCMP Tech — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.