Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the life sciences, including how researchers study biology, develop vaccines and treatments, and detect disease outbreaks. While these advances could improve public health and preparedness, they also raise important questions about safety, security, and the possibility of misuse.
To better understand these issues, the National Academy of Medicine, in collaboration with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and with support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), will convene a two-day workshop on August 11-12, 2026, on preparing for the future of AI-enabled biology.
The workshop will bring together experts from public health, medicine, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, biosecurity, government, and industry to explore how AI-enabled biological risks may evolve over the next decade.
Participants will consider how AI may meaningfully expand biological capabilities, with particular attention to AI-enabled biological and viral design. The workshop will examine how risks may emerge across the AI-bio lifecycle, from model development and biological design to synthesis, access, detection, and deployment. Discussions will explore what become technically possible, what is plausible within real-world contexts, where important uncertainties remain, and how preparedness systems may need to adapt.
Agenda Highlights (Detailed agenda coming soon)
- Keynote: AI-Bio 2045: What Becomes Possible?
- Grounding AI-Bio Risk in Real-World Actors and Constraints
- Assessing How AI and Emerging Technologies are Changing the Biological Landscape
- Where and How Could Novel Risks Emerge Across the Lifecycle?
- Looking Ahead—What Possibilities Could Emerge in the Coming Decade?
- Priorities for Managing AI-Enabled Biological Risks: Prevention, Preparedness, and Future-Proof Governance
Workshop Planning Committee
- Lalitha Sundaram, PhD, University of Cambridge (co-chair)
- Herbert “Skip” Virgin, MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine (co-chair)
- Kate Adamala, PhD, University of Minnesota
- Christian Happi, PhD, Redeemer’s University; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Jasper Götting, PhD, SecureBio
- Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, PhD, A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute
- Harshini Mukundan, PhD, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Suryesh Kumar Namdeo, PhD, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Amarda Shehu, PhD, George Mason University
- Yunyun Wang, OpenAI
Insights from the workshop will help inform a broader National Academies consensus study focused on strengthening preparedness against novel biological threats enabled by AI and other emerging technologies.
Learn more about Preparing for a Future of AI-Enabled Biology.
The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Medicine—collectively, the National Academies—are independent, non-partisan, and tax exempt. The mission of the National Academies is the provision of trusted, evidence-based advice. It is essential to the execution of the mission that participants in our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. Statements and presentations made are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academies.
