About this episode

Adrian Woolfson discusses the transformative potential of artificial biological intelligence in authoring life and the ethical implications of such advancements.

Imagine a future where we grow houses rather than build them. Where smartphones are alive, clothing has opinions and all human knowledge fits into a speck of DNA. A world where disease is a thing of the past and the human lifespan is dramatically extended.To achieve this, says Adrian Woolfson, founder of the genome writing company Genyro, we must transform biology into a predictive, programmable engineering material. That means decoding the generative grammar of DNA: the language of life itself. We will then be able to author genomes—and, if we choose, even rewrite our own.In On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence (MIT Press, 2026), Woolfson describes how we are at the cusp of a technological revolution, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Currently at the scribbling phase—writing the genomes of viruses, bacteria and yeast—we will eventually author the genomes of extinct and never-before-realized species. Life will become computable, detached from its past and no longer bound by Darwinian evolution.While offering extraordinary opportunities, this power also carries great risk, and it is vital…

People in this episode

Guest: Adrian Woolfson

Topics covered

• artificial intelligence
• synthetic biology
• genome editing
• future of species
• biotechnology

Keywords

• artificial biological intelligence
• genome writing
• synthetic biology
• future of species
• biotechnology

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Genyro, MIT Press

Books & works: On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence

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