Science & Technology
Research: AI Creates Living Viruses from DNA Libraries
Scientists have developed AI-created viruses that do not exist in nature. Sixteen of these synthetic viruses have been tested as viable.
Researchers from Stanford University and the ARC Institute have used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new viruses that do not occur in nature. The scientists utilized specialized genetic language models called Evo 1 and Evo 2 to generate genome sequences of bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria.
The AI was trained on DNA libraries and was specifically tasked with designing a genome for a bacteriophage that infects Escherichia coli. This method resulted in the generation of thousands of variants, of which about 300 were chemically synthesized and tested in the lab.
A total of 16 newly created viruses were identified as viable, as they were capable of reproducing and destroying bacterial cells. The researchers currently have no concerns regarding the creation of biological weapons from these results.