OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic CEOs back mandatory DNA synthesis screening

A coalition of AI leaders, synthesis-industry executives, biosecurity researchers, and former national-security officials published an open letter in June 2026 urging Congress to make screening and recordkeeping of synthetic nucleic acid orders mandatory in the US, arguing that rapidly improving AI is eroding the knowledge barriers that have historically kept bad actors from building biological weapons.

Signatories - including Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Nobel laureate David Baker - frame screening as a well-understood, low-disruption measure already practiced voluntarily by major providers, and call for action this congressional session plus consistent state-level standards.