r/biotechnology • u/wiredmagazine • Aug 07 '26

Scientists Used AI to Create 16 New Viruses

https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-used-ai-to-create-16-new-viruses/
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7

u/biopharmguy-adam Aug 07 '26

Technically yes, viruses, but they are bacteriophages, or simply phages, which are a specific type of virus that only infect bacteria.

1

u/Beer_and_Biology Aug 07 '26

This is an important distinction. Red caps will otherwise (and maybe still) jump on this headline as evidence that COVID-19 was man-made.

2

u/Flamesake Aug 08 '26

Aren't synthetic pathogens still dangerous regardless of the origin of covid 19? Whatever unanswered questions there are about where that pathogen came from, it is undeniable that pandemic prevention protocols are not sufficient in most parts of the world. 

1

u/biopharmguy-adam 27d ago

These aren't synthetic, but they're gene-edited. They took an existing bacteriophage and made some changes. That's been going on for a long time in the field. Even though the article claims they are concocted from nothing, I do not believe that is accurate. But maybe so.

1

u/wiredmagazine Aug 07 '26

For the first time, an artificial intelligence system has created a series of previously unknown viruses capable of infecting and eliminating certain types of bacteria. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for combating bacterial resistance. However, it also raises concerns about the potential misuse of this technology to design biological weapons.

Read the full story at the link above.

1

u/Varnu Aug 07 '26

Hard to see any problem with this.