Maybe our best bet against the AI apocalypse is to create better humans… With all the attention focused on AI, synthetic biology and genetic engineering are getting much less love – alas, the field is moving fast:
Working in the field of genetics is a bizarre experience. No one seems to be interested in the most interesting applications of their research. […] We've spent the better part of the last two decades unravelling exactly how the human genome works and which specific letter changes in our DNA affect things like diabetes risk or college graduation rates. Our knowledge has advanced to the point where, if we had a safe and reliable means of modifying genes in embryos, we could literally create superbabies.
Here’s what that means in practical terms:
Already with just 300 edits and a million genomes with matching IQ scores, we could make someone with a higher predisposition towards genius than anyone that has ever lived. […] Diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, Alzheimer's, and multiple sclerosis can be virtually eliminated with less than a dozen changes to the genome.
And yet, we might be running out of time…
Given the current rate of improvement of AI, I would give a greater than 50% chance of AI having taken over the world before the first generation of superbabies grows up.
