Jason Johnson | Search arXiv

arXiv2026

Testing Large Language Model Agents on the Use of Biological Tools for Nucleic Acid Synthesis Screening Evasion

This report is a continuation of previous efforts to test the ability of large language model (LLM)-driven artificial intelligence (AI) agents to interface with AI-enabled biological tools (BTs). While rapid advancements in BTs in recent years have brought promise to accelerate scientific discovery, they also raise significant biosecurity concerns about potential misuse. The biosecurity community is particularly interested in the extent to which LLMs can lower technical barriers and assist non-expert users in accessing and operating BTs. Despite this interest, few evaluations have focused on LLM-BT interactions in the context of a defined threat model. To address this gap, this report describes a test of frontier LLM-driven AI Agents on their ability to use BTs to redesign peptides and proteins to evade nucleic acid synthesis screening measures. Highly relevant to biorisk, this task assesses a potential capability of AI agents that could enable a breach of a critical early defensive layer designed to prevent a multitude of biological misuse scenarios. The findings presented here intend to offer a foundation for biosecurity researchers and AI developers to conduct or further risk and capability assessments as these technologies progress.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2024

Duality between prime factors and the Prime Number Theorem for Arithmetic Progressions -- II

In the first paper under this title (1977), the first author utilized a duality identity between the largest and smallest prime factors involving the Moebius function, to establish the following result as a consequence of the Prime Number Theorem for Arithmetic Progressions: If $k$ and $\ell$ are positive integers, with $1\le\ell\le k$ and $(\ell, k)=1$, then $$ \sum_{n\ge 2,\, p(n)\equiv\ell(mod\,k)}\frac{μ(n)}{n}=\frac{-1}{ϕ(k)}, $$ where $μ(n)$ is the Moebius function, $p(n)$ is the smallest prime factor of $n$, and $ϕ(k)$ is the Euler function. Here we utilize the next level Duality identity between the second largest prime factor and the smallest prime factor, involving the Moebius function and $ω(n)$, the number of distinct prime factors of $n$, to establish the following result as a consequence of the Prime Number Theorem for Arithmetic Progressions: For all $\ell$ and $k$ as above, $$ \sum_{n\ge 2, \, p(n)\equiv\ell(mod\,k)}\frac{μ(n)ω(n)}{n}=0. $$ A quantitative version of this result is proved.

math.NT↗