Synthetic biology harnesses and redesigns biological systems to drive innovation across a broad range of sectors, including health, agriculture, and production. It is increasingly integrating with artificial intelligence tools like large language models and robotics to accelerate innovation, improve accessibility, and enable more complex applications. Guided by the OECD Framework for Anticipatory Governance of Emerging Technologies, this report provides a strategic intelligence assessment of this convergence, laying out several concrete cases of where the technology is and how it could develop in the future. It identifies the governance implications (e.g. biosecurity and biosafety, data supply chain, human oversight) with accompanying policy options for each to guide policymakers on potential future actions. The report recommends further analysis on a range of issues due to policy importance and high uncertainty, such as forward-looking monitoring of the technology’s development, agile and anticipatory governance, and leveraging spaces for international collaboration.
Synthetic biology, AI and automation
A forward-looking technology assessment
