Morocco to host talks on 'worrying' prospect of AI chemical weapons

Talks in Berlin hear warnings of AI being used to develop pathogens and toxic substances

The use of chemical weapons is banned under international treaties but there are fears AI will raise the threat level. Getty Images

Morocco will host talks this year on what was described on Friday as the worrying prospect of artificial intelligence being used to develop chemical weapons.

Scientists and diplomats will meet in Rabat in October to address fears that AI could help create new toxic substances.

AI poses a “high risk” at a time of global tensions, Fernando Arias, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told experts meeting in Berlin, Germany, on Friday.

The use of chemical weapons is banned under several international treaties dating back to the aftermath of the First World War.

However, they have been used by Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Bashar Al Assad's Syria, and the US has accused Russia of deploying them in Ukraine.

Mr Arias said that due to “global instability, geopolitical adversialism, with open wars declared and in motion, the possibility of use of weapons of mass destruction is not only theoretical”.

He added that “we will not be able to neutralise completely the risks that artificial intelligence poses”.

“We are at the beginning of realising artificial intelligence's potential. Very few things are very clear, but it is clear that artificial intelligence represents a high risk,” he said.

“Science and technology adds complexity and improves weapons' efficiency. In the framework of those new technologies, artificial intelligence is perhaps the most worrying, challenging factor.

“[It] adds more precision to weapons and it adds more lethality to existing weapons, which means that it contributes to eroding the disarmament structure, which is not, as you know, at the best point in history.”

A woman inspects a gas mask at a flea market in Ukraine, where the US has accused Russia of using chemical weapons. EPA

Qatar, China, Germany, Spain and South Korea will finance the Moroccan event on the “changing and evolving risks” in the field.

AI is already used by drugs manufacturers to discover new types of medicine, in one of its potentially positive applications in health care.

But one alarming account two years ago, an AI experiment suggested ideas for 40,000 potentially toxic substances in just six hours.

It is also feared that an AI-powered cyber attack could tamper with chemicals manufacturing, unleashing disastrous consequences.

Gunter Sautter, a German Foreign Ministry official in charge of arms control, said AI-created pathogens “could pose a serious challenge” to the ban on biological weapons.

There is also a “key question” around AI and cybersecurity for countries with nuclear weapons command and control systems, he said.

The world may need to “readjust the line between freedom of science research and scientific responsibility”, he said.

“We must examine what steps we can take within the multilateral arms control framework. We need to look at how arms export control regimes need to be adapted.”