1. Introduction
Johnathan Bi: I’m fascinated with the question about what kind of institutions are needed in a world of such rapid technological change. And Henry, I think you are probably one of the best people in the world to speak about this with, because you’ve been building Helena for the last 10 years, which is an organization in partnership with some of the leaders across fields in the world to respond to what you call 20 Manhattan Projects coming our way. So tell us a bit more about that.
2. AI and Biosecurity
Henry Elkus: If you were to create a line graph of the people capable, if they wanted to, of destroying the world or severely crippling it, it would be zero for the vast majority of human history. And then in 1945, it becomes one person, and it’s Harry Truman. And it was because of the Manhattan Project. That irrevocably changed the world. I would say it’s not an over-exaggeration in my mind to say that we have BC and AD, but we also have before the Manhattan Project and after the Manhattan Project. That graph is now a lot more than one person. The brightest minds in the world have developed, as I say, 20 plus Manhattan Projects. And what’s interesting is they’re all intersecting with one another and accelerating each other. And I would