AI creates the first functional virus genomes

The first artificial intelligence (AI)-generated, completely new viruses that successfully infect and kill bacteria were recently constructed from scratch by researchers at Stanford and the Arc Institute, representing a breakthrough in computational biology. The specifics: After training an AI model named Evo on 2 million viruses, researchers challenged it to create new ones; 16 out of 302 tries worked in lab tests. In addition to successful combinations that scientists had previously attempted but failed to construct, the AI viruses had 392 mutations never found in nature. AI-designed viruses overcame defenses in days when the conventional viruses failed, when bacteria become resistant to natural viruses. For years, researchers had been trying in vain to create a synthetic version of the virus that included a component from a distantly related virus. We are at the beginning of a brand-new age of scientific advancement powered by AI. "From reading and writing genomes to designing them represents a new chapter in our ability to engineer biology at its foundational level," as the Arc Institute so eloquently stated.