Reagan institute. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage director of the Ronald Reagan institute, mr. Roger zakheim. [applause] mr. Zakheim i appreciate it. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today at the Ronald Reagan institute. Which as those in the room no, carries on the legacy of our nations 40th president here in washington, d. C. As mentioned i am roger zakheim, director of the institute. And we are excited to host this event as part of our center for peace through strength, National Security innovationbased programs. In collaboration with congressman Brad Wenstrup and the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence for their really consequential series, beyond the skiff. And for those who are not aware of this series, what it means is you get to interact with the members of congress that never see sunlight outside our nations capital. Not that there is much sunshine today. But in reagan country is always sunny, so we will bring some into this discussion. The program is dedicated to assessing the health and effectiveness of americas National Security innovation ecosystem. Much of our work focuses on unlocking the potential of emerging technologies and capabilities like Artificial Intelligence, which as you all know, brings enormous promise for progress across all of our National Security endeavors. And i will shamelessly self promote here. Outside we have our National Security innovationbased report card, which actually tries to harness and understand how the United States is doing in terms of realizing where we need to be as a country when it comes to the nsib. But more relevant to today just as innovation is creating more opportunities to benefit our National Security, it is also creating vulnerabilities. And the domain of bio security is no exception. The democratization of emerging technologies like ai has only made it easier for our competitors and adversaries to engineer lethal new pathogens to wreak havoc on bio security. Sciences have already demonstrated how Large Language Models can be tasked to develop cookbooks for novel agents, lowering the barrier of entry from line actors without significant and sophisticated bioengineering expertise. So todays panel of experts bring deep experience across the public and private sectors at the nexus of bio security and technology, and led by my friend, congressman Brad Wenstrup, the panel will analyze the horizon of emerging threats, assess the state of our bio security, and make policy recommendations that will help safeguard our National Security and the health of the american people. But first, a few words from the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, congressman mike turner. Please Pay Attention to the screen behind me. Rep. Turner good morning, everyone. I am sorry i could not be with you all in person today, but i want to start thinking the Ronald Reagan institute and dr. Brad wenstrup for hosting this crucial conversation. We are kicking off the eighth installment of the beyond the skiff series in the 118th congress with dr. Wenstrups panel, bio security and the weaponization of Artificial Intelligence. I would like to share some background on this series. The beginning up 2023, the intelligence commit he was tasked by former speaker Kevin Mccarthy to restore the House Intelligence Committee focus on National Security. Were committed to revitalize the committees oversight of the Intelligence Community. As part of our strategy be opened our committee to experts and leaders in National Security and in the intelligence field to better counter the threats facing our nation. It was this component of our approach that resulted in our establishing this beyond the skiff series. These discussions are important in making sure that the House Intelligence Committee is instrumental in any intelligence or National Security conversations. It allows for our members to receive feedback and new information from individuals and organizations on what reforms and legislation house intelligence republicans should be focused on. For the first installment of 2024, dr. Brad wenstrup has assembled an excellent panel to discuss bio security and the weaponization of Artificial Intelligence, in partnership with the Ronald Reagan institute. Dr. Wenstrup represents ohios second congressional district. He brings experience as a doctor , an army reserve officer, and a veteran. He is the chairman of the select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. His experience and background are violent our ability to focus on bio defense and National Health security. Americans, government officials, and our allies experienced a sense of urgency for further work on this committal critical issue following the pandemic. This timely discussion will bring to light the risks that we can face, and how we can combat those threats. And with that, i will turn it over to my good friend and fellow ohioan, dr. Wenstrup and todays panelists. Thank you. [applause] rep. Wenstrup it is much appreciated. I appreciate all of you being here as well. I thank him for making that appearance, because it is his efforts to make the committee more engaged, more engaged with experts, so that we can even have some level of expertise and not just be relying on others to come in and tell us things. We want to be engaged with the Intelligence Community firsthand, to be partners with the Intelligence Community. As legislators it is so important we not only engage with the Broader Community to learn with them, but we have the opportunity to inform the public about the work we do on the Intelligence Committee. On the Intelligence Committee, we not only represent the people of the United States of america, we represent other members of congress who are not in the room with us, who dont always have access to the things that we know. And so it is a great opportunity for us to share even more. So i would like to think the Ronald Reagan institute for hosting this event, being leaders on so many issues about National Security. They have been an outstanding resource for me in my time in congress for sure. And that includes this topic today, which is bio defense and Artificial Intelligence. In particular, the work the Reagan Institute is conducting through its National Security innovationbased will help fill some critical gaps in the u. S. National security innovation system. Congressman turner gave you some of my background. I have been on the Intelligence Committee for almost 10 years now. And the only position on there for some time. I was interested in bio weapons even before covid. But when covid hit, another doctor and i were in lockdown, so he is not working as a doctor, we are just doing research. We wanted to know how to treat people. What is going on inside the body when they get covid. There are no tests, no definitive treatment. In that process, around february 2020, we find an article from 2015, we find an article from 2015 with our scientists and chinese scientists where they create a new virus. I did not know that technology existed. That thought is going into a lot of Different Directions as we look into this. With that background, the pandemic was eyeopening because what we were seeing in realtime regarding our nations preparedness for a biologic event or lack thereof. Throughout my time in congress, ive been focusing on National Security and National Health security to ensure we have access to care and medications. These are some of the challenges we face. In february 20 23, the Intelligence Community noted the global shortcomings and preparedness for the pandemic and we can see it could inspire many adversaries to consider options related to biological weapon development. According to the same assessment , new technologies in ai and biotechnology are proliferating faster than companies and government can shape norms, protect privacy and prevent dangerous outcomes. These developments could enable novel biological weapons and could complicate efforts to detect, contribute and assess the threat to treat it. Ideally we want to lead to accelerating detection attribution and treatment. So its timely and hopefully informative for those watching. Before i begin, i will let everyone know we have a q a session following the moderated discussion. Im excited about the panelists we have that bring unique experiences, some from different angles, to talk about. I would like to thank the panelists for joining us today and introduce them. First, mr. Jain, the head of Public Health and Senior Vice President for Public Affairs where he oversees the deployment of software, hhs, fda, nih and other Public Health partners. Since 2020, he has led the work supporting the federal covid19 response and expansion of covid19 specific investments and other Health Problems across Clinical Research and supply chain management. He has previously Held Technology roles at google, jane street, and within the department of defense and graduated from Harvard University with degrees in mathematics and computer science. Dr. Michelle rose know is Vice President of technical a nonprofit strategic investor for cuttingedge technologies to enhance the National Security of the United States. She is also the vice chair of the National Security commission on emerging biotechnologies and thats the capacity in which she is here today. Previously, she was director of technology and National Security at the u. S. National Security Council she advised the president and National Security advisor on biotechnology and National Security policy. She is a molecular biologist by training and studied severe Infectious Diseases as a staff scientist with the Naval MedicalResearch Center in maryland and holds a phd in biology from the developmental biology and Biophysics Program at the Johns Hopkins university and a ba in biology from northwestern. Welcome. Senator jim tell, u. S. Senator from missouri, which time he was a member of the Senate Armed Services and energy and National Resources committee. He was vice chair of the Bipartisan Commission of the prevention of wmd proliferation and terrorism. It has concluded that unless action is taken, a biological event in the United States is likely. He has criticized the federal governments readiness to deal with major Public Health crises. So have i, senator. Mr. Kenneth wayne steen serving as the undersecretary of intelligence and analysis at the department of Homeland Security. He was confirmed by the United States senate in june 2022. The office of intelligence and analysis, hes a member of and the Department Liaison to the u. S. Intelligence community. He serves as the chief Intelligence Officer for dhs and reports directly to the dhs secretary and director of National Intelligence. He also previously served as a commissioner on the Bipartisan Commission on bio defense as a member of the Public Interest declassification board, and several other National Security organizations. He previously spent over 20 years in Law Enforcement and National Security positions. He was a federal prosecutor, acting United States attorney, general counsel of the fbi and Homeland Security advisor with president george w. Bush. This is quite an accomplished group here today and i think we will have a very interesting time. With that, time for you to come on board. [applause] you are here. Im at that end. Why dont we start asking everybody in 90 seconds or so if you could, how would each of you characterize the threats we face when it comes to bio weapons and Artificial Intelligence, and what do you focus on when it comes to studying the issue . I will give you a chance to reintroduce yourself and put a face to the name and if you can answer that as quickly as you can, we will get into more detail. Thank you for moderating and thank you to the Reagan Institute for allowing us to be here. Palantir is a software company, i am a technologist by trade. We specialize in helping federal agencies and partners make that her use of their data to drive position making. We are were born in the aftermath of 9 11 so our roots are in National Security and protecting National Intelligence , and weve seen how readily that approach of connecting the Data Organization to analysts scale and can be widely applied. Weve gone from being the backbone of just the federal government response to covid to serving as a backbone across a number of other Public Health areas of interest. As well as helping manage federal supply chain and visibility into medical countermeasures. Today, in some ways i think this is the nexus of the investment weve made in health care over the last five plus years as well as the roots in National Security. I think any technology historically that can be engineered has been used with opportunity for investment and growth. Theres also risks that come from that. From an infrastructure and technology and how we make use of the tools and data we have, where we are focused is on what a national bio security infrastructure looks like and what intelligence looks like and the partnerships between the public and private need to be to make sure we are safe. Thank you congressmen and thank you to the Ronald Reagan institute. Im delighted to be here. We just released our interim report about two weeks ago. I encourage everyone to check it out at biotech. Senate. Gov. I come through my role as Vice President of the commission and molecular biologist by training. I studied stem cells and Infectious Diseases. With this lens i can say that one of the threats that we are facing is the risk of being overmatched in the critical convergent area of ai and biotechnology by a strategic competitor. Ar is revolutionizing biotechnology and the applications go far beyond the pharmaceutical domain which i think is the domain most people think about first when they hear about biotechnology. Really these technologies can be applied throughout the whole breadth of our economy and change the way we think about agriculture, energy sectors, Industrial Production and means of manufacturing, and of course our defense and military applications. Our adversaries are keenly aware of the breadth of potential and are invest