Exponential AI and Biotechnology Growth (continued): Translating Technical to Policy
September 15-17, 2026
Hopkins Bloomberg Center
555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC
Background: The continued acceleration of agentic artificial intelligence (AI), Biological Design Tools (BDTs), and Biological AI Models (BAIMs) has transformed the technological landscape, enabling tremendous benefits and potential misuse that could massively impact national security, defense, health, and economy. Mitigating this risk will require collaboration across Government, Industry, and Academia with both technical and policy focuses. Significant effort, especially at the federal level, has been made to raise awareness of this challenge, yet additional discussion is necessary to keep pace with the ever-evolving speed of this global technology.
Objective: Johns Hopkins University and RTX BBN Technologies, through a Johns Hopkins Nexus Award, as well as support from SafeTraces, Inc. and Tinycode, are proud to continue this multi-workshop series to shape safeguards that enable the community to understand potential risk and inform timely response. AIxBio Workshop 3 will continue discussing a common problem statement that can be assessed from many different perspectives in subsequent conversations. We invite participants that are seeking to advance understanding of these areas but not limited to:
Agentic AI capabilities, AI-resilient safeguards, biological mechanisms, cyberbiosecurity, international efforts and harmonization, robotic and cloud labs, computational and physical safety protocols, capability, assessment, and red teaming AI design tools and capabilities.
Run of Show
The morning will focus on level setting the communities’ understanding with keynote talks from experts and thought leaders; stay tuned for finalized agenda.
Afternoon sessions will facilitate structured discussions focused on various components of the problem with the objective of generating a comprehensive and agreed-upon problem statement. These breakout conversations will discuss the following topics (topics may be augmented): TBD
Outcome
This workshop will produce written findings and recommendations from each of the breakout groups for use in follow-on meetings.
Abstract Submissions
We invite short talks based on 1-page abstracts (500 words, format of your choice) which will be selected for the final program. AIxBio Workshop 3 topics include:
- Secure Access/Trusted Users.
- Validation of Evaluations.
- Policy Solutions.
- Use-Case-Specific Risks/Mitigations.
- Applications at the intersection of AIxBio such as hardware, robotics, cloud labs, DNA synthesis screening, etc.
Abstracts will be compiled and distributed as a product of the meeting.
Submission site: Google Form
Deadline: August 24, 2026, AoE
Decisions: August 31, 2026
Slides due: September 6, AoE
Organizers
Joel Bader (JHU), Melissa Hopkins (JHU, Tinycode), Debra Mathews (JHU), Aaron Adler (BBN), Kemper Talley (BBN), Nic Roehner (BBN), Kenny Yeh (Safe Traces)