Back to feed
News
Near-term (1-2 years)
January 12, 2026

Meet the new biologists treating LLMs like aliens

1 day agoWill Douglas Heaven

Summary

How large is a large language model? Think about it this way. In the center of San Francisco there’s a hill called Twin Peaks from which you can view nearly the entire city. Picture all of it—every block and intersection, every neighborhood and park, as far as you can see—covered in sheets of paper. Now…

Impact Areas

risk
strategic

Sector Impact

For the Frontier Models sector, adopting this approach could yield significantly safer and more reliable models, enhancing their competitive position and addressing concerns about misuse or unintended consequences in cutting-edge AI development.

Analysis Perspective
Executive Perspective

Understanding LLMs as complex systems requiring biological-style analysis can lead to improved model debugging, security patching, and proactive risk mitigation strategies. This could translate to reduced downtime, improved data security, and enhanced model performance in operational environments using AI. Incorporating biological viewpoints and ecological analytical techniques may necessitate new skillsets for AI engineering and security teams.

Related Articles
News
September 22, 2022
Building safer dialogue agents  Google DeepMind
News
December 22, 2025
Telegram users in Uzbekistan are being targeted with Android SMS-stealer malware, and what's worse, the attackers are improving their methods.
News
20 hours ago
Analysts say the deal is likely to be welcomed by consumers - but reflects Apple's failure to develop its own AI tools.
Technologies
LLM
Transformers