Working Biological Viruses Designed By AI

Stanford researchers have used AI to design real, working viruses in the lab, raising major questions about safety, regulation, and future use.

The Research

This month (September 2025), a team led by Brian Hie at Stanford and the Arc Institute revealed that generative AI models can now design entire genome-scale viruses that work in practice. These were not simulations or theoretical sequences. The viruses were tested and validated in a lab, and in some cases outperformed their natural equivalents.