AI Reports · GovAI (Oxford) · 2026-10-17 · Research paper
AI and Biosecurity Measuring Mid-2025 LLM-Assistance on Novice Performance in Biology February 2026 Research Paper Shen Zhou Hong, Alex Kleinman, Alyssa Mathiowetz, Adam Howes, Julian Cohen, Suveer Ga
A pre-registered randomized controlled trial (June to August 2025, n = 153) found no significant difference in workflow completion for novices using LLM assistance versus internet access on a task modeling a viral reverse genetics workflow. The LLM arm had numerically higher success rates in four of five tasks, which the authors associate with a modest performance benefit. The study points to a gap between benchmark results and real-world utility and calls for physical-world validation of AI biosecurity assessments.