# Apocalypse soon? AI could hasten bioweapons Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/economist-podcasts-921330/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/economist-podcasts-921330/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons.md Podcast: [Economist Podcasts](https://stenobird.com/podcast/economist-podcasts-921330) Published: 2026-05-12T10:09:09+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/theintelligencepodcast/episodes/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/d556eb54-6160-4c85-95f4-47d9f5216c49/a/theeconomistallaudio/e/6a02f53f5c981a3573401402/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=sbWW3Z6iiQCaSeLYPmTvsvq_0w7Bfqw5xJwjIKgaFvE Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/economist-podcasts-921330/episodes/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons Duration seconds: 1239 ## Resource Artificial intelligence could help terrorists develop new dangerous pathogens . Our correspondent asks how humanity can protect itself from machine-assisted biological weapons. Stock markets are soaring, despite the oil shock. What does this tell us about investor confidence in traditionally safe assets ? And the doughs and don’ts of German bread .   Guests and host: Arthur Holland Michel, emerging tech writer Josh Roberts, capital markets correspondent Lily Meckel, audience fellow Rosie Blau, host of “The Intelligence” Topics covered:  Bioweapons, AI, virus Stockmarkets, oil shock, dollar, government bonds German bread, Bernd das Brot Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology— Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+ For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/economist-podcasts-921330/episodes/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/economist-podcasts-921330/apocalypse-soon-ai-could-hasten-bioweapons.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.