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Key Takeaways In a new study, researchers showed that they could use AI to design 16 functioning viruses not found in nature.
The new research fuels concerns that AI could one day create a new category of biological weapons, such as deadly poisons or viruses, that pose a threat to humanity.
The viruses created by AI weren’t harmful to humans — they were all similar to another virus that occurred in nature and could only infect bacteria.
For the first time, researchers have tapped into AI to design brand-new viruses, according to a new report from The New York Times.
This advancement could one day give scientists new ways to study diseases and develop treatments. But it also raises concerns that someday, similar technology could be used to manufacture biological weapons, such as deadly poisons or viruses.
Scientists have been able to build viruses in laboratories for years. They can copy a virus’s genetic code, or the biological instructions that tell it how to work, to study vaccines, antiviral drugs and the viruses themselves.
But in this new study, published recently in the journal Science, researchers did more than copy something that already exists. Scientists at Stanford University and the Arc Institute trained an AI system to study the patterns found in DNA, the material that carries genetic instructions in living things.
The AI then used those patterns to write instructions for creating new viruses. The researchers turned those instructions into real DNA and placed it inside bacteria.
The bacteria then produced viruses that had never existed in nature. These viruses could infect other bacteria, showing that they were able to function. However, the viruses created by AI weren’t harmful to humans. They were all similar to another virus that occurred in nature and could only infect bacteria.
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