grantmaking.ai Launch Round
This project aims to test whether safeguards designed to prevent AI-enabled biosecurity risks are effective in a resource-constrained environment, using Nigeria as a case study to investigate vulnerabilities that could undermine global catastrophic risk.
To do this, we shall evaluate the AI safety ecosystem in Nigeria at three levels. The first level will be to look at the AI-enabled biosecurity policies and regulations in Nigeria that have been designed to prevent the misuse of AI-frontier systems or the training of new models and also to evaluate institutional preparation against pandemic risks. Secondly, we shall evaluate if frontier models remain robust using linguistic expressions and terminology that reflect our cultural peculiarities in Nigeria. Lastly, we shall evaluate if DNA synthesis safeguards against X-risks are effectively applied to ordering services from a resource-limited setting. The central question we are asking is, "Do AI biosecurity safeguards remain robust when deployed in untested and resource-constrained settings like Nigeria?"
At the end of this project, 1. We hope to have a clear landscape assessment of AI-biosecurity governance in Nigeria. 2. A confidential assessment of how consistent relevant DNA synthesis service providers apply safeguards for research requests originating from a resource-constrained setting 3. Lastly, we shall make available datasets and evaluation reports of the red-teaming evaluation of the robustness of select frontier models in the Nigerian scientific, linguistic, and cultural variations.
The team will be led by a principal investigator, a microbiologist and faculty member at Plateau State University, with experience in genomics surveillance of pathogens. Other members of the team include a cohort of various early-career scientists who will be trained in AI-biosecurity safeguards and be involved in the red-teaming analysis and ordering of DNA synthesis services. The project will involve policymakers and DNA synthesis service providers
When it comes to AI biosecurity risk, we are as safe as our weakest link. A bad actor might exploit the weakness in a resource-limited setting to carry out their goal. Most of the AI-biosecurity safeguards have been tested in resource-rich countries with strong systems and institutions, leaving uncertainties about whether they remain effective in a resource-limited system like Nigeria. By evaluating potential geographic, cultural, and institutional gaps in the global AI-biosecurity ecosystem, this project reduces opportunities for bad actors to circumvent existing controls, thereby contributing to reducing x-risk AI-enabled catastrophic biological events.