Large genome models used to design new viruses
Summary
Ars Technica reports that Stanford researchers used large genome models (Evo 1 and Evo 2) to generate viral genomes that infect bacteria, testing them in vitro. The study produced 16 viable viruses out of 285 synthesized sequences, with viability correlated to similarity to ΦX174; the work raises biosafety and governance concerns about AI-designed genomes, and calls for tighter oversight on DNA sequence ordering.