Scientists have designed fully functional viruses from scratch using artificial intelligence for the first time, according to a study published in the journal Science.
The study, titled "Generative Design of Bacteriophages with Genome Language Models", reported that researchers created 16 entirely new bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria.
The research was carried out by scientists from Stanford University and the California-based Arc Institute. The team trained a generative AI model on millions of natural genomes, including genetic sequences from viruses, bacteria, plants and humans. By learning recurring DNA patterns, the model generated entirely new viral genome designs.
Researchers selected around 300 AI-generated genomes and chemically synthesised their DNA in the laboratory. Of those, 16 produced fully functional bacteriophages. When introduced to their target bacterium, E. coli C, the newly created viruses successfully infected the bacteria with varying levels of effectiveness.
According to the study, the AI model works in a manner similar to large language models such as those used in ChatGPT. The researchers said the generated bacteriophages were different from known natural phages, with new mutations, distinct genes and regulatory elements, and varying genome lengths.
The study also found that a mixture of AI-designed bacteriophages rapidly killed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, while a comparable mixture of naturally occurring phages did not achieve the same result.
The researchers said the AI-designed viruses do not pose a threat to humans.
According to The New York Times, the viruses are similar to Phi X-174, a naturally occurring bacteriophage that infects only bacteria and cannot infect humans.
The findings point to the potential of AI in synthetic biology, particularly in developing new treatments against drug-resistant bacteria. At the same time, experts said the technology raises biosecurity concerns because similar methods could potentially be misused in the future to create harmful biological agents.