AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o

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AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o

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In the study , published in the journal Science, researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute trained genomic AI models called Evo on trillions of nucleotides — the individual building blocks of DNA found in every living organism — allowing it to learn statistical patterns in how biological DNA is arranged. Much as a language model learns which combinations of words tend to make sense, Evo learned which combinations of nucleotides tend to produce biologically meaningful sequences.

Scientists have been synthesizing viruses for decades, typically to study how they work and to test antiviral drugs and vaccines. In these projects, researchers typically use the genetic sequence of a virus that already exists to manufacture new ones. Basically, they use existing genomes — genetic sequence data that holds information on how proteins come together to form an organism — replicating and editing this data.

Every organism comprises nuclotides/DNA. The genome provides the instructions for exactly how these building blocks form to create that specific organism. We can copy the data and replicate the organism, aka cloning. However, because trillions of possible genomes exist, it has been statistically impossible for humans to study enough of them to know the formula for how nature puts these building blocks together to form an organism. The blocks were known, but the formula for arranging them in a way that created viable genes wasn't. Until now.

After training the AI model on over 9 trillion nucleotides spanning over 128,000 genetic sequences drawn from millions of animals, plants, microbes, and viruses, it was able to discover patterns and use those patterns to design new genes that could instruct cells to make specific proteins. Using the pattern, the scientists wanted to see if the AI could create a blueprint for a new, simple organism, such as a virus that contains only a few thousand building blocks. For context, humans contain over three billion.

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  1. AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o
  2. AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o
  3. AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o
  4. AI creates 16 new viruses that never existed in nature after learning DNA’s pattern from 9 trillion nucleotides — experts warn such applications are way ahead o

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