The CEOs of some of the biggest AI companies in the world have set aside their cutthroat competition to co-sign an open letter to Congress asking for more safeguards against a threat that their own technology has helped create.
Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Mustafa Suleyman—the CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft AI, respectively—signed their names to a public letter to Congress urging the government to screen for the buying and selling of synthetic materials that could be used to create bioweapons. The letter, signed also by dozens of experts in the life sciences and national security fields, was organized by the conservative-leaning think tank, the Foundation for American Innovation, as well as the nonpartisan Institute for Progress.
The letter specifically asks Congress to mandate screening for companies that are selling synthetic DNA and RNA, which the letter’s authors argue could be used to create bioweapons with the help of AI. Notably, some of the companies that manufacture these materials, like Twist Bioscience and Ansa Biotechnologies, also signed the letter, signaling that at least part of the industry welcomes the regulation.
“AI systems are improving rapidly, and alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode,” the letter read.
While companies selling synthetic DNA and RNA already do some screening voluntarily, the letter wants Congress to go further by making it legally required across the industry. The letter also urges Congress to require the companies that sell these synthetic materials to keep records on their orders, as well as the exact specifications of the materials sold, in an effort to help with potential biosecurity investigations.
The letter comes as improved AI models continue to spread to more people at global and exponential scale. A study by Stanford University from earlier this year found that generative AI tools reached 53% of the world’s population in just three years, faster than both the PC or the internet. At the same time, experts have found that publicly available AI models are able to provide information on how to create biological weapons and how to spread them, the New York Times reported earlier this month.
A silent threat
The government has long recognized the need to protect against deadly biological weapons. Biological agents are rarely used in terrorist attacks, and have accounted for just 0.02% of all historical attacks, according to a study in the peer-reviewed publication, The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Yet, because they are often odorless, colorless, and in some cases highly contagious, they pose a distinct threat to Americans.
Biological agents like Anthrax are especially deadly. When inhaled, Anthrax has a mortality rate of nearly 100% without treatment. In 2001, five people died and another 22 people were infected after a microbiologist and former employee of the Army’s biodefense laboratory mailed several Anthrax-laced letters addressed to two U.S. senators and several news outlets. The attacks, which came just after 9/11, spurred one of the largest FBI investigations ever.
Some laws already exist to protect Americans against man-made biological threats. The Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 made it illegal to develop or possess biological agents for use as a weapon, with a potential penalty of up to life in prison. After the anthrax attacks in 2001, the PATRIOT Act expanded on the 1989 law, making it easier to prosecute people in possession of dangerous biological agents even without explicit proof that they intended to build a weapon.
Congress has already made some progress on improving the safeguards around the selling of synthetic DNA and RNA. In February, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act of 2026, with the goal of forcing sellers of these synthetic materials to screen both their orders and their customers while providing exemptions for “clearly non-hazardous and pose no credible threat to public health and safety.”
While the bill slowly moves its way through Congress, Josh Wentzel, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, told Fortune that the letter was a good opportunity to show lawmakers that the AI industry and companies who sell synthetic DNA and RNA were equally concerned about the issue.
“This is bipartisan, concrete, achievable, and noncontroversial,” Wentzel said, adding he hopes now that Congress sees these parties are aligned, it can move forward with passing the Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act. “It’s a goal among many national security experts and, crucially, something the nucleic acid synthesis industry itself has called for.”
