Scientists at Stanford University have used artificial intelligence to design 16 new viruses capable of being reproduced in a laboratory, a breakthrough intended to help combat antibiotic-resistant infections but one that has prompted warnings from biosecurity experts about the risks of the technology.
The BBC reports that the experiment relied on AI models called Evo1 and Evo2, which differ from text-based systems like ChatGPT in that they are trained to predict the genetic codes of viruses, bacteria, plants and even humans. Researchers used the models to generate hundreds of designs for a type of virus known as a bacteriophage, which targets E. coli bacteria. Of those designs, 16 were successfully produced, according to findings published in the journal Science.
The research marks the first time an entire genome has been successfully designed using AI. Scientists say the development of new bacteriophages could eventually lead to novel treatments for infections that no longer respond to antibiotics.
“This is a next step in the complexity that’s designable by generative AI, this is the first time generative AI has been used to design a complete genome, it’s something that can replicate and have other functions inside cells… this was new territory for us,” Brian Hie, an assistant professor at Stanford University, told the BBC.
The achievement has also raised concerns about the broader implications of synthetic biology, the field focused on engineering new forms of life that do not naturally exist, and its potential for misuse in creating pathogens harmful to humans.
In a commentary accompanying the study’s publication in Science, Dr. Thomas Inglesby and Dr. Moritz Hanke of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security wrote that the findings raise “urgent biosafety and biosecurity questions.” They said the research demonstrates that the real issue is no longer “whether generative viral genome design will exist,” but whether the technology can be developed and used without “enabling serious harm.”
The two doctors wrote that efforts to design new viruses capable of causing disease “should not be pursued.”
Hie said his team took steps to limit the risks of their work. He said all viruses capable of infecting complex organisms were excluded from the AI’s training database, and that the research focused solely on bacteriophages, which target bacteria rather than humans or animals. He added that the work was conducted in a secure laboratory setting.
Hie argued that existing safeguards help ensure “that the technology is used for good.”
Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall describes AI as having great potential on the positive side, but also having the same danger as a landmine for America’s future. AI creating viruses certainly counts as one of those landmines. Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at the BBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.