How the A.I. and Biotech alliance will affect New Zealand

An article published in Nature on July 30 entitled CRISPR-GPT for agentic automation of gene-editing experiments explains how genetic modification of human and plant cell lines en masse is now being controlled by computers.

What could possibly go wrong?

The opening sentence of the abstract reveals the premise of the article: “Performing effective gene-editing experiments requires a deep understanding of both the CRISPR technology and the biological system involved.” Read on and it becomes clear that the authors believe that their A.I. system known as CRISPR-GPT will make better choices than humans when it comes to chopping up DNA. “The [CRISPR-GPT] ‘Auto mode’… does not adhere to a predefined task order. Users submit a freestyle request, and the LLM (Large Language Model) Planner decomposes this into tasks, manages their interdependence, builds a customised workflow and executes them automatically.” 

‘Automation’ equates with rapid genetic modification on a scale previously unimagined, even by relatively unskilled workers. The decision making process in CRISPR-GPT is based on a paltry 3,000 question and answer pairs which have been mined from archived scientific discussions between real life researchers. To demonstrate its power the article reports a trial in which two junior researchers unfamiliar with gene editing were guided by the system to perform multi-gene knock outs and epigenetic editing with 80% accuracy.

Almost in passing the article notes the system could be abused to create bioweapons, such as genetically engineered viruses (???). To supposedly mitigate this, the system triggers the following steps when it considers there is sufficient risk: (1) displays a warning note when proceeding with human gene-editing experiments; (2) provides a link to the international moratorium with an explanatory note; and (3) asks users to confirm that they understand the risks and have read the international guidelines before proceeding. As if a warning note equivalent to the advertising of road safety standards will be sufficient to stop someone intent on biotech mischief (aka destroying the world).

Let’s just remember one little mistake in gene editing can lead to inheritable disease which can never be contained, recalled or mitigated.

It is probably clear to you that the process of human thinking does not rely on a countable number of Q&As. As we have previously discussed in our article “What is Natural Law”, the complexity and subtlety of human intelligence has been greatly underestimated by A.I. researchers. This is not just by an order of magnitude, A.I. misses the fundamentals of conscious (and unconscious) processes. In turn biotechnology has no coherent understanding of how our genetics supports the expression of consciousness. As a result the capacity for errors in A.I. driven biotech systems is huge and unquantifiable. In other words mistakes are inevitable but on a scale and with a significance far greater than anything seen previously.

The Gene Technology Bill will import into NZ novel risks not just to our health but to our mind. It appears that our parliament has no idea what they are rubber stamping to pass across our borders into the daily life of the nation. 

How much will the Gene Technology Bill cost the nation?

The other day I asked my family how much NZ may have to pay to employ ‘experts’ in artificial intelligence and biotechnology if the Gene Technology Bill is passed? One relative guessed an average salary of  $120,000 a year, while another smelled a rat and shot for one million a year. It was of course a trick question, designed to shock my audience at home. I already knew the answer, NZ $425 million over four years for each employee with an upfront $170 million in the first year, as reported by an article in the NY Times. This is the package recently agreed between Meta and 24 year old A.I. researcher Matt Deitke. It does make the $75,000 pay of nurses look a little undervalued, especially when they are people who actually help save lives, rather than just make promises and mistakes.

That the US views NZ as a satellite province was amply underlined this week when the FBI, whose remit and responsibilities mainly focus on domestic US matters, opened a branch office in Wellington. This was described by the FBI Director Kash Patel as an “historic moment”. Patel’s visit included a meeting with spy master Judith Collins who is also the chief architect of the Gene Technology Bill. Patel said he was truly humbled with the open reception and promised to work together on some of the most important global issues of our time. All this reveals just how we might expect NZ’s relationship with the US to unfold if the Gene Technology Bill passes. NZ will be paying astronomical sums to US patent holders of A.I. and biotechnology processes. In return, our nation will be exposed to an unprecedented increase in computer driven biotechnology experimentation on our food and medicine involving a risk to life—the pandemic years replayed with a massive increase in scale.

Important Announcement

This article would normally have appeared on our GLOBE website which is dedicated to explaining the dangers of biotechnology from a consciousness based and theoretical perspective whilst also calling for global legislation outlawing biotechnology experimentation. However GLOBE has not generated enough traffic and is also subject to constant malicious attacks which take up time and energy to counter. Therefore we have decided to close down the GLOBE website and instead move the material to Substack. Substack offers a wider international audience, a forum for discussion posts and education, as well as hosting of multimedia, all in one place. To kick this off we would like to ask that you subscribe to our Substack. By subscribing to our Substack channel, you will not only get access to unique material but also increase our exposure to millions of other Substack users. This won’t involve any duplication with your Hatchard Report subscription. In addition to offering unique new GLOBE articles on Substack, we will be completely revising the most significant past GLOBE material and presenting it as an integrated understanding of the interaction between consciousness and physiology sufficient to highlight key dangers of biotechnology from a deeper perspective. To subscribe go to this link.

Guy Hatchard PhD was formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a global food testing and safety company (now known as FoodChain ID). You can subscribe to his websites HatchardReport.com and GLOBE.GLOBAL for regular updates by email.

He is the author of ‘Your DNA Diet: Leveraging the Power of Consciousness To Heal Ourselves and Our World. An Ayurvedic Blueprint For Health and Wellness’.