Stanford AI designed bacteriophages that killed phage resistant E. coli
Stanford researchers just used AI to design new viruses that target bacteria, not people.
By training their models on genetic data from 2 million bacteriophages, they managed to create viruses in the lab that wiped out E. coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages.
This could be a big step for treating tough infections with phage therapy.
Johns Hopkins experts warn safeguards lagging
While the science is exciting, it's also raising eyebrows about safety.
Experts like Prof. Tom Inglesby and Dr. Moritz Hanke from Johns Hopkins say current safeguards aren't keeping up with how fast AI can design new viral genomes.
The Stanford team made sure not to include data on human, animal, or plant-infecting viruses in their training set, but experts still want stronger rules at every stage (from AI development to DNA synthesis) to prevent future misuse.