AI Designed Viruses That Never Existed Before

By Tiff In Tech

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AI can now design complete viral genomes, and some of those designs actually worked when scientists synthesized them in the lab. Researchers used a genome language model called Evo 2 to generate hundreds of new bacteriophage genomes. Of 285 designs that were synthesized, 16 produced viable phages capable of infecting E. coli. A lot of the conversation around this has focused on the most alarming version of the story. I wanted to do the opposite and look at what actually happened. These viruses do not infect humans. The research could actually have huge potential, including helping scientists develop new ways to fight antibiotic resistant bacteria. But it also raises an important question about how our existing safeguards keep up as AI becomes capable of designing biology that did not exist before. In this video, I break down how genome language models work, what the researchers actually demonstrated, what the technology could be useful for, and where the real biosecurity questions

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