GoKawiilDid we learn nothing from sci-fi? A study published in Science (via The New York Times) details how researchers used an AI model to design new viruses capable of infecting and reproducing inside bacteria. The good news: they took appropriate precautions, and their work could lead to breakthroughs in gene therapy and biotechnology. The bad news: the next guys might not be so generous.
Scientists at Palo Alto's Arc Institute and Stanford University created the viruses with the genome language models Evo 1 and Evo 2. They work somewhat like large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or Claude. Except instead of being trained on books and websites, they studied genetic sequences. The project trained its models on trillions of nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA) and learned the "grammar" of genetic code.
For this experiment, the team further trained the models on about 15,000 viruses from the same family as Phi X-174, a tiny virus that only infects E. coli bacteria. The scientists explicitly limited the scope to exclude anything that could infect humans, other animals, plants or fungi.
Evo generated around 700,000 possible new viruses. The team then selected the 285 most promising candidates, manufactured their DNA and inserted it into bacteria. In the end, 16 of Evo's creations produced working viruses. They were at least as viable as Phi X-174, with some reproducing faster.