AI used to create new biological viruses

Artificial intelligence has been used to create entirely new biological viruses in the laboratory for the first time.

This is the first time that an entire genome has been successfully fashioned by AI. The viruses are fully functional and can replicate themselves in a laboratory setting. 16 new viruses have so far been created that can infect bacteria.

Generative artificial intelligence has been used effectively to design new medications, such as antibiotics, and to work on targeted vaccines. This new step of designing an entirely viable virus from scratch has been called a “very significant turning point” for science.

Brian Hie, assistant professor at Stanford University, told the BBC: “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”. Prof Marc Güell said that for the “first time in history, we are beginning to design biology on a computer” which “allows us to dream of exciting possibilities for tackling humanity's greatest challenges”.

The genome for a virus contains over 5,000 base pairs, however viruses are not considered to be alive. The simplest living organism has 100 times as many base pairs, and a human has ten thousand times more than that.

While the work could lead to breakthroughs in science and medicine, concerns have been raised that the technology could be used to create malicious new diseases. The team took precautions to ensure safety while conducting the tests, excluding viruses that could infect complex organisms from the AI’s training database.

Nevertheless, in a commentary alongside the study, Dr Thomas Inglesby and Dr Moritz Hanke from Johns Hopkins University said that the work raises “urgent biosafety and biosecurity questions”. It was no longer a question of “whether generative viral genome design will exist” but whether that can happen without “enabling serious harm”. They warned that creating new viruses with the possibility of causing disease should not be pursued.