Scientists trained AI on genetic sequences to design viruses not found in nature, yielding viable viruses that can infect bacteria but pose no threat to humans (Carl Zimmer/New York Times)
Researchers used generative models trained on genomes to design viable bacteriophages, showing AI can create functional viral sequences beyond nature.
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/science/ai-viruses-bacteria-arc.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3VA.u8aT.vCeLPF02XbEp&smid=nytcore-ios-share"><img align="RIGHT" border="0" hspace="4" src="http://www.techmeme.com/260806/i40.jpg" vspace="4" /></a>
<p><a href="https://www.techmeme.com/260806/p40#a260806p40" title="Techmeme permalink"><img height="12" src="http://www.techmeme.com/img/pml.png" style="border: none; padding: 0; margin: 0;" width="11" /></a> Carl Zimmer / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/">New York Times</a>:<br />
<span style="font-size: 1.3em;"><b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/science/ai-viruses-bacteria-arc.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3VA.u8aT.vCeLPF02XbEp&smid=nytcore-ios-share">Scientists trained AI on genetic sequences to design viruses not found in nature, yielding viable viruses that can infect bacteria but pose no threat to humans</a></b></span> — Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes.</p>
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