White House Finalizes The Most Important Policy To Prevent AI Apocalypse You’ve Never Heard Of

The White House moved to reduce the likelihood of an artificial intelligence-made bioweapon by vetting the vendors of molecular materials.

The White House science office announced on Thursday that the government would begin to screen purchases of synthetic nucleic acids, the raw material scientists use to build viruses in the lab. The policy tackles the possibility of a humanity-exterminating bioweapon — among the major fears of artificial intelligence labs for years — by closely guarding the critical inputs for making one. It offers a highly technical solution to Silicon Valley’s existential dread about a humanity-exterminating biological disaster.

“Through this Policy, the Administration is building a dynamic biosecurity defense centered on strong controls over the materials that enable synthetic biology misuse,” said White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios in a Thursday letter introducing the policy.

An executive order addressing dangerous gain-of-function research signed by President Donald Trump on May 5, 2025, required the government to produce the screening policy in 90 days. Roughly 460 days after that specified deadline, the White House published the policy.

Scientists receiving federal tax dollars for their research must purchase their raw materials from certified suppliers. The certified suppliers agree to ensure their customers are not bad actors or hostile foreign governments.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is expected to issue a more detailed set of standards and evaluation protocols in the next 90 days. Purchasers of dangerous genes will have to be vetted as good stewards of that material.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will then publish a list of certified suppliers.

In a little over a year, the government expects that scientists with government funding will only be buying from certified suppliers of synthetic nucleic acids and DNA synthesis equipment.

A 2024 policy by the Biden administration sought to achieve a similar goal, but had no enforcement mechanism to verify vendors were following the rules.