April 14, 2026
On April 8-9, 2026, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies convened a conference titled “Silicon, Swords, and Ploughshares: The Perils and Promise of AI in the Nuclear and Biological Domains.” The event was held at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California, a venue long associated with landmark conferences on the governance of transformative technologies.
Over 100 expert participants from the artificial intelligence (AI) and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) spheres took part in the gathering. They included representatives from the AI industry and frontier laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, multiple foreign ministries, universities, and other nongovernmental research institutions and industry. The conference keynote speaker was Dr. Robin Geiss, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).
Participants engaged in panel discussions and breakout groups aimed at defining and addressing the risks to nuclear and biological security posed by AI’s rapid growth and integration into human affairs. To that end, the conference identified priority areas for research, governance, and implementation needed to preserve meaningful human control over potential AI-driven existential risks. The conference secretariat will soon produce a statement of principles and an agenda for action.
The Asilomar event was made possible by generous support from George C. Lee II (Middlebury Class of 1988).
View the conference flier and agenda
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