{"id":30586,"date":"2026-08-07T02:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T21:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30586"},"modified":"2026-08-07T02:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T21:56:25","slug":"ai-designs-new-virus-not-found-in-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30586","title":{"rendered":"AI designs new virus not found in nature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/IgXppXNLPsANu4P4uoliP8tLc0M=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/06\/1786045768212.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A Stanford-led research team has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aec2657\" target=\"_blank\">used generative AI<\/a> to design a synthetic virus \u2014 the first time artificial intelligence has been harnessed to create a organism that has never been seen in nature.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>What could go wrong?<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>It could be the first step toward the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/24\/ai-risk-bioweapons\" target=\"_blank\">nightmare scenario<\/a> AI experts have already warned about: deadly pathogens that can&#8217;t be stopped, because they&#8217;ve been created too quickly for our current surveillance systems to stop them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The research could also lead to medical breakthroughs, which is the hope of the research team that conducted the study. &#8220;The ability of genome language models to generate entire functional genomes has not been tested,&#8221; they wrote.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> Researchers wrote in <em>Science<\/em> that they used an AI model to design viruses that can infect and kill the microbe <em>E. coli.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>While that could go a long way toward controlling deadly bacterial infections, the technology could be harnessed to develop more complex forms of life \u2014 and even help design biological weapons. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue:<\/strong> The news also throws a new twist into government efforts to regulate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/02\/17\/ai-data-viruses-biosecurity\" target=\"_blank\">high-risk research<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Trump administration has been focused on &#8220;gain of function&#8221; research on natural pathogens \u2014 as has Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), whose committee held Anthony Fauci <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/06\/anthony-fauci-covid-senate-contempt\" target=\"_blank\">in contempt<\/a> Thursday for refusing to answer questions from lawmakers investigating the origins of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/health\/coronavirus\" target=\"_self\">COVID-19<\/a> pandemic.<\/li>\n<li>But the AI work created something entirely new. It goes way beyond just studying how to manipulate natural viruses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Biotechnology is regulated through a patchwork of laws and agencies, with breakthroughs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bakerinstitute.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2025-06\/20250627-Johnson%20et%20al.-Regulatory%20Landscape-Working%20Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">frequently outpacing<\/a> regulators. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Trump administration last month issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/USG-Policy-for-Stopping-High-Risk-Life-Sciences-Research_July-2026.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a policy<\/a> for stopping high-risk research in the life sciences that prohibits federally funded &#8220;gain of function&#8221; research and calls for enhanced oversight of projects involving harmful biological agents.<\/li>\n<li>But that didn&#8217;t specifically address AI-driven research, which is evolving at breakneck speeds. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: <\/strong>Johns Hopkins health security experts Thomas Inglesby and Moritz Hanke, writing in the same issue of <em>Science<\/em>, praised the Stanford team for taking precautions, but said there aren&#8217;t enough existing guardrails to oversee generative genomics.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The ability to compose viral genomes using generative AI now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.aej8512\" target=\"_blank\">they wrote<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Stanford-led research team has used generative AI to design a synthetic virus \u2014 the first time artificial intelligence has been harnessed to create a organism that has never been seen in nature. Why it matters: What could go wrong? The big picture: It could be the first step toward the nightmare scenario AI experts&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/IgXppXNLPsANu4P4uoliP8tLc0M=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/06\/1786045768212.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}