AI Is Learning to Write Genetic Code

Researchers have been using artificial intelligence models to generate complete genomes for a viable bacteriophage, a type of virus that infects and replicates inside bacteria. The models were given an existing bacteriophage as an example and produced about 700,000 potential designs. From these, the researchers selected 285 that seemed most promising and then synthesized new DNA molecules based on those designs. The synthesized DNA molecules were then inserted into a system to test their viability. This research has the potential to be both exciting and terrifying due to its implications. The ability to generate and test new genetic code using AI could have significant consequences.