When AI Meets Biology: The Race Between Innovation and Oversight
Release Date: 02/10/2026
How We Can Keep Biotech in Check with Dr. Kate Sixt of USDA
Risk InSight
What happens when cutting-edge biotechnology meets artificial intelligence, and who's responsible for governing it? Kate Sixt, Executive Director of the Office of the Chief Scientist at the USDA and former Principal Director for Biotechnology at the Department of Defense, breaks down why biological data is uniquely personal, why governance frameworks need to balance promotion with protection, and how diverse perspectives are essential to navigating biotech's biggest risks and opportunities. Listen now to this exciting episode interviewing one of the world's leading experts in biotechnology...
info_outline
What's in Your Water?
Risk InSight
Every time you turn on the tap, you're trusting a complex system to keep you safe — but what happens when that system faces threats we're still learning to understand? In this episode of Let's Talk Risk, host Anya Grondalski speaks with three researchers on the front lines of drinking water safety. In this episode of Let's Talk Risk, Dr. Alexis Morass of The College of New Jersey breaks down Legionnaires' disease — a waterborne pneumonia with a fatality rate that dwarfs COVID-19's peak — and shares findings from a nationwide study examining how different disinfection strategies affect...
info_outline
The Case for Honest PFAS Communication
Risk InSight
"Forever chemicals" have been in headlines for years, but are people actually getting the information they need to protect themselves? In this episode, we sit down with Lyn van Swol, professor in the Department of Communication Arts at UW-Madison, and graduate researcher Rachel Hutchins, co-authors of a newly published study in the journal . They analyzed the top 98 websites Americans visit when searching for PFAS information in drinking water. We dig into why government and public health communicators tend to downplay severity and what messaging frames actually motivate people to act. Listen...
info_outline
Words that work: talking climate change with the public
Risk InSight
When we think about communicating risk, we often focus on the evidence: the data, the models, the science. But what if the words we choose to frame that risk are just as important as the risk itself? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a leading researcher in risk perception and behavioral science at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Institute for Public Policy and Government Service, to explore what the science really says about communicating climate risk to the public. In this conversation, Dr. Bruine de Bruin shares findings from two recent...
info_outline
Inside the Supply Chain Trust Game
Risk InSight
In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Zachary Collier, assistant professor at Radford University and longtime member of the Society for Risk Analysis, to explore a hidden but increasingly urgent problem in global supply chains: intellectual property theft through overproduction. Drawing on his research in semiconductor supply chains, Dr. Collier explains how designers and manufacturers navigate trust, incentives, and risk with millions of dollars on the line. He breaks down how game theory helps illuminate the strategic decisions each party faces, why overproduction is so difficult to detect,...
info_outline
With Access Interrupted, How Do We Rebuild?
Risk InSight
When disaster strikes, how do we rebuild...and do we do it differently? The answer might start with something simpler than we think: listening to the people already living with risk. In this episode, we chat with Ben Raschnock, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University, whose work sits at the intersection of civil engineering, operations research, and real-world decision-making. Ben studies how disasters don't just destroy things. They cut people off from what they need most. Floodwaters block roads. Power outages shutter grocery stores. A...
info_outline
Crowdsourcing the Federal Institutional Comeback
Risk InSight
Two veteran risk analysts reflect on how scientists, academics, and federal employees (both former and current) are planning for the day agencies can be rebuilt. Adam Finkel, professor at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health and former head of regulation at OSHA, and Vicki Bier, retired faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, make the case that the worst thing reformers could do is simply restore the status quo. After decades of regulatory running on autopilot, a...
info_outline
When AI Meets Biology: The Race Between Innovation and Oversight
Risk InSight
Biotechnology is advancing faster than ever before, and the stakes have never been higher. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Cummings, lead for the Center for Health Engineering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, breaks down why the convergence of biotech and artificial intelligence is creating both unprecedented opportunities and existential risks. From gene-edited foods that could revolutionize agriculture to AI-designed viruses that could destabilize nations, Dr. Cummings explores the delicate balance between innovation and oversight. He reveals why traditional regulatory frameworks...
info_outline
How Can We Build Institutional Resilience?
Risk InSight
In this episode of Let's Talk Risk, we're diving into a conversation with two leaders in global development: Abhilash Panda from the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction—the team responsible for delivering the Sendai Framework worldwide—and Jordan Schwartz, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest source of multilateral financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. We discuss why our institutions aren't built to handle systemic risk, why the term "resilience" means completely different things to different people...
info_outline
Narrowing in on Nanotechnology
Risk InSight
Khara Grieger, assistant professor of environmental health and risk assessment at NC State University, joins Dr. Sandra Alday to discuss emerging nanotechnologies and their unique applications. Grieger discusses avenues to managing the risks of nanotech development in biotechnology and genetic engineering, as well as the rise of artificial intelligence.
info_outlineBiotechnology is advancing faster than ever before, and the stakes have never been higher. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Cummings, lead for the Center for Health Engineering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, breaks down why the convergence of biotech and artificial intelligence is creating both unprecedented opportunities and existential risks.
From gene-edited foods that could revolutionize agriculture to AI-designed viruses that could destabilize nations, Dr. Cummings explores the delicate balance between innovation and oversight. He reveals why traditional regulatory frameworks are struggling to keep pace and how "information hazards" are forcing scientists to rethink transparency itself.
We dive into the ethical minefield of black-boxed AI systems, designing biological solutions, the growing trust gap between lab and consumer, and what it means when AI can "de-skill" biotechnology to the point where expertise is no longer required to create dangerous organisms.
Topics covered: CRISPR and gene editing, AI convergence, biosafety and bioweapons, public trust in GMOs, generational attitudes toward biotech, risk communication, international cooperation, and the future of governance in an accelerating technological landscape.