Scientists trained AI on genetic sequences to design viruses not found in nature, yielding 16 viable viruses that can infect bacteria but don't threaten humans

Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes.

New York Times 2026-08-07 Carl Zimmer

Context & Ripple Effects

The result extends earlier evidence that generative models can produce experimentally validated biological designs: ProGen generated antimicrobial proteins that worked in real-life tests. It also arrives after researchers warned that AI can design harmful biological sequences that evade DNA-order biosecurity screening and called for guardrails around infectious-disease datasets.

First-order effects

The researchers have shown that an AI trained on DNA libraries can generate complete viral-genome recipes with laboratory viability, moving the demonstrated capability beyond individual protein design.
Biosecurity researchers now have a benign, bacteria-targeting test case for evaluating controls on models and datasets used for viral-genome generation.

Second-order effects

DNA-order screening providers face added pressure to assess designs generated by AI, given prior evidence that models can be used to seek sequences that evade existing screens.
The researchers advocating guardrails for infectious-disease datasets gain a concrete example of why oversight must address model-enabled sequence design, not only access to physical samples.

Third-order effects

If validated biological designs continue to emerge from general-purpose sequence models, biosecurity governance will increasingly center on training data, model access, and sequence-screening resilience rather than on traditional laboratory controls alone.

The trend: Generative biology is progressing from designing functional proteins toward producing viable whole-genome constructs, making AI-era biosecurity controls more consequential.

Discussion

NewsMax.com Jim Thomas on x
Stanford Lab Uses AI to Build Bacteria-Killing Viruses
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
I just don't think we are ready for this [image]
Vikram Kanda, PhD Vikram Kanda, PhD on linkedin
I can't decide if this is horrifying or one of the greatest ideas we've ever had. — The New York Times just covered an A.I. model that was trained …
@bruces @bruces on bluesky
*They used genome *language models* to generate the viruses?! Like with William Burroughs, “language is a virus from outer space”? — *Obviously “They” are gonna cull the human population with this, but death by AI-virus would be a cool William Burroughs way to die — www.scie…
@jimalwine Jim Alwine on bluesky
is out of the bottle and now there should be a moratorium until the morality, ethics and safety of this approach can be discussed and established. — www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/s...
@rimaanabtawi Rima I Anabtawi on bluesky
Here's the paper/ the abstract, unless you have access, released today — Generative design of bacteriophages with genome language models — www.science.org/doi/10.1126/ ...
@chrislhayes Chris Hayes on bluesky
Oh, so *this* is how the writers are gonna bring together the A story and B story for the finale! — Very cool. — www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/s...
@markriedl Mark Riedl on bluesky
A lot of caveats and limitations on this study. It could end up being an important milestone. [embedded post]
@michaeldgreen.phd Michael D. Green, PhD on bluesky
For all the hand-wringing around “gain of function” research, it's hilariously ironic to me that this type of work with AI has no real regulation. — I'm sure we will see some strong statements against this and the companies that make it possible (eye roll). — www.nytimes.com/…
r/LocalLLaMA r on reddit
BBC is running article titled “Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses” ... cue the “We must regulate Open Weights Models to prevent the next Covid or worse” articles in 3... 2..
r/accelerate r on reddit
JUST IN - For the first time, AI has designed complete viral genomes, producing 16 functional viruses that infect bacteria and “pose no threat to people.” …
r/science r on reddit
This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature
r/technology r on reddit
Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses
r/biotech r on reddit
Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses. The breakthrough has been labelled a “very significant turning point” in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. …
r/singularity r on reddit
Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses
r/accelerate r on reddit
Artificial Intelligence used to design brand new viruses
r/technews r on reddit
AI Just Created a New Virus
r/circled r on reddit
This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature
@elkeschwarz Elke Schwarz on bluesky
AI labs urgently need ethicists / political philosophers to point out to them their moral responsibility for developing something with a high likelihood of producing harm / become co-opted into biological warfare etc. I mean, even a brief glance across history would do. www.bbc.…
@profsimonfisher Simon Fisher on bluesky
Using AI to design & synthesize entirely novel biological viruses - this will all end well I'm sure.🫣🤞 — 🧪
@thevirologist @thevirologist on bluesky
I didn't want to read the original paper, but after all the fear mongering posts, I had to sit down and digest what was going on: — www.science.org/doi/10.1126/ ... @beornblack.bsky.social 's post is NOT fear mongering, just presenting the Ars Technica write up about it. — o…
Filippa Lentzos Filippa Lentzos on linkedin
On the AI viruses experiments published in Science yesterday, I tell The Guardian: — There is an important distinction between generating …
r/EverythingScience r on reddit
Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI | Science | The Guardian
r/sciences r on reddit
Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI | Researchers say breakthrough offers hope for new medicines but also raises urgent biosecurity questions
r/technology r on reddit
Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI
r/science r on reddit
In lab tests, AI-designed viruses killed E coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages. These are the first viruses made by scientists designed by AI. …
r/worldnews r on reddit
Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI
@samuelhking Samuel King on x
Today in @ScienceMagazine, we report the first functional AI-generated genomes. 🧵 https://www.science.org/... [image]
@robertwiblin Rob Wiblin on x
Ten most upvoted comments on this FT story: 1. “Post Covid surely this should be the highest regulated activity anyone on the planet can undertake.” 2. “Literally what could possibly go wrong?” 3. “Great, have these scientists never watched a movie?” 4. “Casually mentioning [imag…
@arcinstitute @arcinstitute on x
One of our most popular preprints of 2025 is now published in @ScienceMagazine. Congrats to @BrianHie, @samuelhking, and team on establishing a framework for generating and evaluating AI-generated genomes. - Access the paper: https://www.science.org/...
@erictopol Eric Topol on x
A frontrunner of generative AI in biology was design of novel proteins, not found in nature. This has moved on now to designing viral genomes, the 1st reported today @ScienceMagazine. This has great potential to synthesize phage to counter antimicrobial resistance but also [image…
@packym Packy McCormick on x
The cool thing is that what they are really good at is cybercrime and designing novel viruses
@emostaque Emad on x
Artificial Intelligence has nothing on Human Stupidity.
@alltheyud Eliezer Yudkowsky on x
Another failed prediction by the “but muh samples and experiments! very long timelines no threat” crowd.
@jessesingal Jesse Singal on x
[nodding sagely:] been saying for awhile we need more viruses, ideally ones nature herself would never deign to create
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
Thankfully the American public doesn't care about mitigating novel viruses so we should all be fine!
@benhylak Ben Hylak on x
congratulations to these viruses for their new gain of function! [image]
@brianhie Brian Hie on x
Our paper reporting the generative design of complete bacteriophage genomes is now published @ScienceMagazine. Check out this thread by @samuelhking for more details, including the new data included in the published version. https://x.com/...
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
We're all gonna die fyi https://www.nytimes.com/...
@scobleizer Robert Scoble on x
New nightmares and advances. So many dystopian science fiction stories could start out with this. My mother used to believe we would wipe each other out. Joined a survivalist cult in 1988. This kind of thinking doesn't prove true. And if it ever does you don't want to be
@tombombadeel Tom on x
FYI there's nothing novel about “making new kinds” of viruses and just means it was genetically modified. There IS something novel about using AI to do the lit review for you and have it work Of course many headlines about this are sensationalist and fearmongering. Check
@humanharlan Harlan Stewart on x
AI can now design brand new, self-replicating viruses
@michaelmina_lab Michael Mina on x
It's hard to explain and fathom the potential risks of AI designing and then building entirely new viruses In this new work, scientists created brand new viruses using AI. They say it's ok bc they “only infect bacteria” Let's be clear *IF* a new virus is released that could
@ashishkjha Ashish K. Jha on x
I've spent the last 3 years working on how we protect society as biology becomes easier to engineer This week: scientists in a Palo Alto lab used AI to design a working virus. They built in safeguards. Unfortunately, many others will not
@r_h_ebright Richard H. Ebright on x
“The ability to compose viral genomes...now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not.” Six years into a global pandemic caused by a lab-generated virus, there still is no—zero—global governance of dangerous gain-of-function virology research. https://www.science.org/...
@noahpinion Noah Smith on x
I love AI, but someone is going to vibe-code the doomsday virus and kill us all
r/Cyberpunk r on reddit
Safety fears as scientists make first viruses designed by AI

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