Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses

US researchers say artificial intelligence was used to design 16 fully functional, replicating viruses in the laboratory—the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI. The viruses are bacteriophages that infect specific bacterial species and, researchers say, pose no threat to people. The work, described as a “very significant turning point,” involved AI models called Evo1 and Evo2, which predict genetic “language” rather than human text, using training data from viruses, bacteria, plants and people. Stanford researchers synthesized 302 top AI designs; 16 proved effective against E. coli. The advance also sparked “urgent” biosafety and biosecurity concerns from Johns Hopkins experts writing alongside the research.