AI Creates Novel Lab-Grown Virus "Evo-Φ2147" Faster Than Nature

• Scientists at Stanford University and the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, used AI to create a novel lab-grown virus named "Evo-Φ2147".
• This virus is not a mutation of a natural virus but an entirely new sequence, designed by an AI system called Evo2, trained on trillions of DNA base pairs.
• Evo-Φ2147 was specifically engineered to infect and kill E. coli bacteria, performing 25% faster than natural viruses in experiments.
• The discovery highlights AI's potential in synthetic biology, offering new avenues for creating bacteriophages to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.
• While currently not dangerous to humans, the breakthrough raises biosecurity concerns, emphasizing the need for strict regulations and ethical oversight for AI-designed biological systems.

Why It Matters: AI has enabled the creation of a novel, highly efficient lab-grown virus, opening new medical possibilities but also raising biosecurity concerns.