Sam Altman, the recently fired (and rehired) chief executive of Open AI, was asked earlier this year by his fellow tech billionaire Patrick Collison what he thought of the risks of synthetic biology. ‘I would like to not have another synthetic pathogen cause a global pandemic. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a great experience,’ he replied. ‘Wasn’t that bad compared to what it could have been, but I’m surprised there has not been more global coordination and I think we should have more of that.’

  • Blapoo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    109·
    1 year ago

    I’m on your page at least - best evidence we had was that it leaked from a Wuhan lab.

    Not sure what the conspiracy here is, other than “Rich man has thoughts that come close to an opinion on vaccines. Get the pitchforks!”

    Missing the forest for the trees, it feels like - The man has a good point about synthetic viruses.

    • tetris11@lemmy.mlEnglish
      261·
      1 year ago

      Check my comment above. More scientists believe it was due to a random mutation (the similarity of the sequence to other bat coronaviruses was extremely similar, and this one was a small change that just happened to be potent), though there are also many scientists who find the wuhan lab more than circumstantial.

        • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
          14·
          1 year ago

          Im sorry, this is an anti-memetic zone. You seem to have used a thought ending memetic sentence, please report to the blue room for punishment. You are to sit in the black chair. Your social standing has decreased.

          This is an automated message, further replies to this message can and will increase the severity of your punishment. They also will be ignored.