OpenAI Backs a New Company Aiming to Prevent AI Bio-Attacks

It’s a nightmare scenario: A terrorist without much training uses an artificial intelligence program to engineer a supervirus combining the incubation period of HIV, the contagiousness of measles and the mortality rate of smallpox. This is a worst-case outcome for the AI revolution, the Center for AI Safety wrote in a recent report. It’s also what’s keeping Kathleen McMahon up at night.

McMahon is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Valthos Inc., a New York-based biosecurity software startup building tools to defend against bioweapon attacks, which could be hastened by AI advancements. On Friday, the nine-person startup is officially emerging from stealth, ...