Policy letter regarding AI and GMO legislation

Recent advances in AI make it possible to design and create new viruses and, in the future, potentially new organisms. Current GMO legislation defines a GMO as an organism whose genetic material has been “altered”, but it is unclear whether this definition also covers organisms that are not altered but created from scratch with the help of AI.

In this letter, COGEM notes that this legal ambiguity may have significant societal, ethical and regulatory implications, particularly for the protection of human health and the environment. COGEM therefore calls for this discussion to be conducted at EU level and for clarity on how safety should be safeguarded if newly created organisms fall outside the current GMO framework.