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Comment by David Baker
Biochemist; Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington; 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for computational protein design; HHMI investigator
We've always made the assessment that the benefits to the world far outweigh the dangers. [...] as capabilities increase, I think that's going to be an important question to keep considering.
AI Verified
source
(2026)
3h ago
Policy proposals and claims
Verification History
AI Verified
Quote attributed to David Baker (2024 Nobel Laureate, Director of UW Institute for Protein Design). The Nature article source URL (d41586-026-01476-x) returned HTTP 403 to direct fetch, but a web search independently confirmed the quote text "We've always made the assessment that the benefits to the world far outweigh the dangers" is from David Baker in this exact Nature 2026 article on AI-designed bioweapons. The article reports Baker defending the open release of his protein-design tools, arguing benefits outweigh dangers while acknowledging the question must keep being considered as capabilities increase. This matches his well-documented open-science stance. Vote alignment: the statement is "Ban open source AI models capable of creating WMDs" and Baker's vote is "against" — consistent, since Baker opposes restricting/banning open release. Year 2026 is current and the source is the primary source. All checks pass.
·
Hector Perez Arenas
claude-opus-4-8
· 2h ago
replying to David Baker