Scientists Train AI on DNA and It Creates 16 New Viruses
Scientists at Stanford University have used an artificial intelligence model trained on millions of DNA sequences to design new viral … Read More The post Scientists Train AI on DNA and It Creates 16 New Viruses appeared first on ProPakistani .
A recent study conducted by scientists at Stanford University has demonstrated the capability of artificial intelligence in designing new viral genomes. By training an AI model called Evo on millions of DNA sequences, the researchers were able to generate 16 genomes that successfully infected E. coli bacteria in laboratory experiments.
This development showcases the potential of AI to learn patterns and evolutionary constraints from extensive genetic data, and utilize that information to create functional viral genomes that do not resemble natural sequences. The researchers utilized an OpenAI model, similar to language models that learn patterns from large collections of text, to generate new genetic sequences.
Out of the AI-designed genomes synthesized and tested in the lab, 16 proved to be functional bacteriophages capable of infecting E. coli. Some of these viruses also managed to bypass natural resistance mechanisms employed by the bacteria. Notably, human pathogen data was excluded from the training process, indicating that the viruses created in this study were not intended to infect humans.
However, biosecurity experts have cautioned that this emerging technology could potentially lower barriers to designing harmful pathogens if appropriate safeguards are not in place.
Written by urgent.news from ProPakistani's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
