BREAKING: AI Creates Entirely New Viruses Never Seen in Nature
Researchers have used an AI model trained on large amounts of genetic data to design new viral genomes from scratch. Out of 285 designs tested in the lab, 16 became fully functional viruses capable of infecting bacteria and reproducing—despite never having existed in nature before.
The researchers say these viruses were designed to infect bacteria, not humans, and human viruses were deliberately excluded from the AI’s training data as a safety measure.
Scientists believe this technology could help develop new treatments, gene therapies, and tools to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. At the same time, it is raising serious questions about biosafety, biosecurity, and how AI-designed biology should be regulated.
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