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AI Creates First Functional Viral Genomes That Kill Bacteria

Published SEP 19 2025

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The Spin

This breakthrough represents a transformative leap in biotechnology that could revolutionize treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections. The AI-generated phages demonstrated superior performance, with some showing 16-65 fold expansion rates compared to natural variants' mere 1.3-4 fold increases. Most importantly, these synthetic phages rapidly overcame bacterial resistance that completely defeated natural phages, offering hope against the growing crisis of multidrug-resistant bacteria that kills hundreds of thousands annually.

The Register

The biosecuritycreation implications of AI-designed viralviruses genomeswith raiseenhanced infectivity raises serious biosecurity concerns aboutthat potentialcannot misusebe for bioweapons developmentignored. While researchers excluded human viruses from training data, the same techniques could theoretically be applied to dangerous pathogens like HIV or coronavirus, which have similar genome sizes. toThe thefact bacteriophagesthat created.several TheAI-generated abilityphages toqualify generateas novelentirely viralnew variantsspecies withunder enhancedtaxonomic infectivityrules representsdemonstrates anhow unprecedentedthis capabilitytechnology that could lower barriers to biologicalbioweapon weaponsdevelopment, creationdespite ifresearchers' appliedclaims maliciouslyabout complexity.

The Register

The biosecurity implications of AI-designed viral genomes raise serious concerns about potential misuse for bioweapons development. While researchers excluded human viruses from training data, the same techniques could theoretically be applied to dangerous pathogens like HIV or coronavirus, which have similar genome sizes to the bacteriophages created. The ability to generate novel viral variants with enhanced infectivity represents an unprecedented capability that could lower barriers to biological weapons creation if applied maliciously.

Newsweek