Radical Numerics makes an offline tool for gene threats

On Wednesday, Radical Numerics, a company in San Francisco, announced Omnii Defense. This small model runs on a laptop with a USB gene sequencer, a device that reads DNA. It finds natural and AI made pathogens, which are germs that cause disease. It also works with no internet connection, and researchers in the field can use it.

How it works

Omnii Defense makes some predictions about a sequence. They show the risk that it is a pathogen and the risk that AI made it. They also show the group of life that is near to it. It puts them together in a threat score from 0 to 1. A score near one shows a large threat.

The numbers

The company gave no test results. Other tools, such as Felix from the US government, compare a sequence with libraries of known organisms. That finds a pathogen with small changes, but those tools do not make predictions as Omnii does.

What is not known

Some scientists think a threat from bioweapons made by AI is small. The chief executive thinks a race in biodefense will come, as in cybersecurity. Last week, George Church left Radical as an adviser. Radical did not disclose a partner in its October announcement.

Insight: A biodefense product comes before the threat is proven

In October, a test found that 23.5% of AI agent designs with tools were in the top tenth of risk. Without tools, it was 21.4%. Radical Numerics made a defense. Some scientists think the threat is small. This reads as a move to get the biodefense market with no test results. Leaders must get test results before they pay.