If you really want to know how humanity will meet its end, The New York Times just published a detailed preview.
For the first time, scientists have used AI to invent entirely new viruses that have never existed in nature.
These lab-made viruses successfully multiplied and infected bacteria, proving the AI’s “recipes” actually work. While these specific viruses are harmless to humans, the breakthrough raises a chilling question: Could the same technology be used to create a new pandemic?
The scientists at Stanford University and the Arc Institute fed a powerful artificial intelligence model, called Evo, DNA data from nature. The AI studied the biological patterns and then wrote its own brand-new blueprints for a virus. The researchers printed these AI-generated blueprints in a lab, inserted them into common bacteria, and watched as the bacteria read the instructions and built functional, multiplying viruses.
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The good news is that this breakthrough can be a medical goldmine. Many devastating diseases — like sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis — are caused by “errors” in our DNA. If an AI can learn to write new viral blueprints, it can also learn to write good DNA blueprints to fix our broken cells.
The bad news is that this type of computer-based research, “such as generating virus DNA with A.I.,” currently lacks regulation. During experiments, the scientists deliberately locked the AI’s “library.” They never showed it any DNA from viruses that infect humans, pets, farm animals, or plants. The AI only studied viruses that attack bacteria. But that boundary, it turns out, was self-imposed and entirely optional.
“We just wanted to be extra careful,” said Brian Hie, a computational biologist at Stanford University and an author of the new study about AI-generated viruses, as quoted by The New York Times.
Dr. Hanke praised Dr. Hie and his team for taking these precautions. “I think that’s quite commendable,” he said, “because they don’t get any guidance from anywhere on what they should be doing.”
So what they’re saying is that currently the only thing standing between us and the new deadly AI-created virus is self-restraint of good people.
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