Why we’re scared of AI and not scared enough of bio risks

More than 1 million Americans died of Covid-19, and while in the early months of the pandemic the country made massive, life-altering, changes to reduce its spread, it has done very close to absolutely nothing to make sure it never happens again.

(Maybe this is because of the massive, life-altering changes in the early months of the pandemic; they became unpopular enough that warnings we should avoid having another pandemic often get a hostile response.)

More directly, the US is still conducting research into making deadlier and more contagious diseases, even while there’s legitimate concern that work like that may have even caused Covid. And despite the enormous human and economic toll of the coronavirus, Congress has done little to fund the preparedness work that could blunt the effects of the next pandemic.