Targeting Off Target Effects: CRISPR, AI and Anticipatory Bioethics

The development of AI techniques has led to the collaboration between computer scientists and biologists from research institutions across the United States. The result of this collaboration has yielded a set of computational tools that increase efficiency and accuracy when deploying CRISPR.

Although CRISPR shows great promise in a number of fields, a major challenge is that a variety of genomic regions are similar, which means the nano-sized genetic engineering tool can accidentally go to work on the wrong gene and cause unintended consequences and produce off-target effects. A new strategy is has been developed that uses a branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning to make predictions about so-called off-target effects when editing genes with the CRISPR system.

Recent advances including CRISPR technology in conjunction with AI are outpacing the ability of policymakers to frame and address this powerful technology. Accepting the premise that CRISPR mediated gene editing in humans is inevitable, we present an anticipatory analysis of the ethical viability of the perfection of CRISPR in conjunction with AI with respect to future stakeholders. We show that pluralist universalism, which puts at its central tenets’ social justice and freedom, uncovers that for future stakeholders, there is a decrease in social justice if CRISPR is used to edit human embryos. We use computing’s digital divide as an analog for CRISPR and demonstrate that there will be inequalities in access and advantage conferred by use of CRISPR with respect to historically racially and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Finally, we make recommendations for policymakers with specific emphasis on international treaties that de-emphasize the role of scientists in dictating policy with respect to CRISPR and develop the idea that the consequences of CRISPR through the application of AI needs to be examined from the perspectives of the widest range of stakeholders.