Scientists Use AI to Create 16 New Viruses Capable of Attacking Bacteria

Researchers from Stanford University and the Arc Institute used AI models trained on genomes from millions of organisms to design 16 new bacteriophages—viruses with potential to combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. The Evo 1 and Evo 2 models, developed for computational biology, identified complex evolutionary patterns and generated thousands of entirely new, functional, and previously unseen genomes. Of 300 genomes synthesized in the laboratory, only 16 produced fully functional bacteriophages capable of infecting E. coli bacteria. The breakthrough opens doors for new antiviral therapies but raises concerns about potential misuse for designing biological weapons.