AI used to create viruses not found in nature for first time

What the report says

US researchers have reported a scientific first: using artificial intelligence to help create new viruses that do not occur in nature. According to Al Jazeera’s report, scientists at Stanford University and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard described the work in the journal Science, where they said an AI model was used to generate thousands of bacteriophage genomes from a naturally occurring virus that infects bacteria.

The researchers then chemically synthesized nearly 300 of those genomes and tested them in laboratory settings. The result was 16 viable viruses, and a mixture of the synthetic phages was said to outperform the natural viruses in killing E. coli in the experiments. The team said the approach could open a path toward designing phage therapies that adapt more quickly against bacteria, including difficult-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant infections.

At the same time, the development has intensified biosecurity concerns. Experts quoted by Al Jazeera said the same capability could, in principle, be misused to design harmful viruses, making oversight and screening important. Other scientists stressed that the study involved bacteriophages, which infect bacteria rather than people, and said the immediate risk to humans is limited.

The announcement comes amid broader unease about advanced AI systems and their potential misuse. Cautious background context: the episode adds to ongoing debate over how governments and researchers should regulate frontier AI, especially when it can be applied to biological engineering.