Researchers at Stanford University have created the first viruses designed with the help of artificial intelligence.

Scientists have created in the laboratory the first viruses whose genomes were designed with the help of artificial intelligence, a premiere that could accelerate the development of new drugs, but which also raises concerns about the control and safety of this technology.

Dr. Brian Hie, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California, used genomic language models - the genetic equivalent of large language models (LLMs) that underpin AI chatbots. These models treat genetic sequences as a language and have been used to design functional genomes of bacteriophages. The viruses were then created in the laboratory and put in contact with E. coli in a laboratory culture.