OpenAI, Anthropic urge Congress to mandate DNA order screening

The interesting thing about the open letter that OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Microsoft AI all put their names to this month is what it does not ask for. It does not ask Congress to regulate the models themselves. It asks Congress to regulate the mail order DNA business.

As Wired reported, the letter, released on June 3, was signed by Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind and Mustafa Suleyman of Microsoft AI, alongside scientists, national security officials and executives from gene synthesis companies. It was organized by the Foundation for American Innovation and the Institute for Progress. The ask is concrete: that any company selling synthetic DNA and RNA in the United States be required to screen the sequences ordered and verify who the buyer is.

The framing the letter uses is that "AI systems are improving rapidly, and alongside incredible benefits to science and medicine, there is a real possibility that the knowledge barriers which have historically prevented bad actors from obtaining biological weapons will meaningfully erode." The signatories also lean on the claim that AI systems can now match PhD-level virologists on technical laboratory questions, which is the part to take as reported rather than as settled, because the underlying evaluation is not in the public material.

There is a bipartisan bill already on the table from Senators Tom Cotton and Amy Klobuchar, the Biosecurity Modernization and Innovation Act of 2026, which is in effect what the letter is cheering on. Notable, too, that DNA synthesis firms Twist Bioscience and Ansa Biotechnologies signed, which suggests at least part of the industry would rather have one clear federal rule than a patchwork of state ones.

The honest caveat is that the reporting does not give you the evaluations behind the PhD-level virologist line, what "screening" would require in practice, or how a U.S. regime would handle orders placed with overseas synthesis providers. The political signal worth holding in mind is the one the labs are quietly sending by signing this at all: they would rather see policymakers tighten the wet lab supply chain than the model weights.