AI just 'designed' a virus used on a human: The terrifying reality of our new 'lab-grown' future.

Synopsis

A California startup has used artificial intelligence to design a virus that was administered to a human patient for the first time. The experimental treatment uses bacteriophages to target antibiotic-resistant bacteria, potentially opening a new way to fight infections that conventional medicines cannot control. However, the patient's recovery has not been disclosed.

Artificial intelligence has now started to do things that were once limited to only specialised scientific laboratories. After learning to write code, create images and assist in drug discovery, AI has now entered an area that raises much bigger questions. It recently designed a viruses that can be used inside the human body.

A patient who had been suffering from a serious bacterial infection has received an experimental treatment using viruses that were designed by artificial intelligence, as per California-based startup Radical Numerics. The company says that this is the first time that a human has been given an AI-designed virus.

But this also raises a question that if AI can design viruses to fight dangerous bacteria, what happens when the same technology is used for purposes other than treating disease?

How AI made a virus to attack bacteria?

Radical Numerics has developed viruses, called bacteriophages or phages and these are the type of viruses that occur naturally, only infecting and killing bacteria, but not human cells. Doctors have been investigating phage therapy as a possible experimental treatment for patients with serious bacterial infections, especially when antibiotics fail.

But finding the right virus for a specific infection is not easy because a phage that can kill one bacterial strain may not work against another. Researchers traditionally have to go through collections of naturally occurring viruses to identify one that can target the bacteria causing a patient's illness.

This is where AI comes in. Radical Numerics used its model, Omnii-1, to modify parts of an existing virus's genetic material, particularly the sections that help it recognise and attach to bacteria.

The company says the AI-designed viruses were tested against bacteria collected from the patient before treatment. Laboratory tests reportedly showed that the virus mixture eliminated the antibiotic-resistant bacterial sample.

This experimental treatment was then administered under a compassionate-use programme, that allows doctors to give investigational therapies to seriously ill patients when the usual options are unavailable.

Did the patient recover after receiving the virus?

That remains unclear. Radical Numerics has not disclosed the patient's diagnosis, the details of the treatment or whether the infection was successfully cleared.

The company's announcement has also not been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It has cited patient confidentiality as the reason for withholding further information and said it plans to share more findings in the future.

Reacting to the development, Harvard microbiologist Michael Baym told The New York Times, "If it works, that's incredible." However, he also expressed caution, saying, "My impulse is to be skeptical."

The treatment of one patient, even if successful, would not establish whether the approach is safe or effective for wider medical use.

The development follows another significant experiment announced in August by researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute. They used an AI system called Evo 2 to design previously unseen viruses capable of killing E. coli bacteria.

Of nearly 300 AI-designed viral genomes synthesised and tested, 16 produced functional viruses. However, those experiments took place in laboratories and involved bacteria, not human patients.

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