AI genome models used to design new bacteria-killing viruses

Researchers used large genome AI models to generate genetically distant new versions of a bacteriophage, a virus that kills bacteria. The AI system designed variants that diverge significantly from natural sequences.

Why it matters: This is a concrete demonstration that generative AI can design functional biological sequences, not just predict or analyze them, extending the same dual-use pattern seen in protein-design models. It sharpens the ongoing debate over how open genome models should be, since the same techniques could in principle be pointed at harmful sequences rather than beneficial ones.