Scientists use AI to create a virus never seen before

(Web Desk) - Lab–grown life has taken a major leap forward as scientists use AI to create a new virus that has never been seen before.

The virus, dubbed Evo–Φ2147, was created by scientists from scratch using new technologies that could revolutionise the course of evolution.

With just 11 genes, compared to the 200,000 in the human genome, this virus is among the simplest forms of life.

However, scientists believe that the same tools could one day create entire living organisms or resurrect long–extinct species.

This artificial virus was specifically created to kill infectious and potentially deadly E. Coli bacteria.

Based on a wild virus known to infect bacteria, scientists used an AI tool called Evo2 to create 285 entirely new viruses from scratch.

While only 16 were able to attack the E. Coli, the most successful were 25 per cent quicker at killing bacteria than the wild variants.

However, previous research has raised concerns that AI–designed pathogens could themselves become a deadly threat to humanity.

This incredible breakthrough comes from the work of scientists at Genyro, a startup led by British scientists and entrepreneur Dr Adrian Woolfson.

Dr Woolfson told the Daily Mail: 'For the last 4 billion years, all life on Earth has evolved by the trial-and-error process of Darwinian evolution by natural selection, which lacks any foresight or intention.

'Natural evolution now has a co-author. That co-author, the emerging ability of AI-driven genome design and genome construction technologies, has the potential to exist alongside natural evolution.'