--- title: "Experts Alarmed That AI Is Now Producing Functional Viruses" description: "After scientists showed that AI can design a working virus, it's time to address the obvious: what if it's also used to make bioweapons?" date: "2025-09-27" modified: "2025-09-27" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/health-medicine/experts-alarmed-ai-viruses" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" --- # Experts Alarmed That AI Is Now Producing Functional Viruses ![After scientists showed that AI can design a working virus, it's time to address the obvious: what if it's also used to make bioweapons?]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* AI can now invent working biological viruses. In real world experiments, a team of Stanford researchers demonstrated that a virus with AI-written DNA could target and kill specific bacteria, they [announced in a study]() last week. It opened up a world of possibilities where artificial viruses could be used to cure diseases and fight infections. But experts say it also opened a Pandora's box. Bad actors could just as easily use AI to crank out novel [bioweapons](), keeping doctors and governments on the backfoot with the outrageous pace at which these viruses can be designed, warn Tal Feldman, a Yale Law School student who formerly built AI models for the federal government, and Jonathan Feldman, a computer science and biology researcher at Georgia Tech (no word on whether the two are related). "There is no sugarcoating the risks," the pair warned in a [piece for the *Washington Post*](). "We're nowhere near ready for a world in which artificial intelligence can create a working virus, but we need to be — because that's the world we're now living in." In the study, the Stanford researchers used an AI model called Evo to invent DNA for a bacteriophage, a virus that infects bacteria. Unlike a general purpose large language model like [ChatGPT](), which is trained on written language, Evo was exclusively trained on millions of bacteriophage genomes. They focused on an extensively studied phage called phiX174, which is known to infect strains of the bacteria *E. coli*. Using the EVO AI model, the team came up with 302 candidate genomes based on phiX174 and put them to the test by using the designs to chemically assemble new viruses. Sixteen of them worked, infecting and killing the *E. coli* strains. Some of them were even deadlier than the natural form of the virus. But "while the Stanford team played it safe, what's to stop others from using open data on human pathogens to build their own models?" the two Feldmans warned. "If AI collapses the timeline for designing biological weapons, the United States will have to reduce the timeline for responding to them. We can't stop novel AI-generated threats. The real challenge is to outpace them." That means using the same AI tech to design antibodies, antivirals, and vaccines. This work is [already being done to some extent](), but the vast amounts of data needed to accelerate such pioneering research "is siloed in private labs, locked up in proprietary datasets or missing entirely." "The federal government should make building these high-quality datasets a priority," the duo opined. From there, the federal government would need to build the necessary infrastructure to manufacture these AI-designed medicines, since the "private sector cannot justify the expense of building that capacity for emergencies that may never arrive," they argue. Finally, the Food and Drug Administration's sluggish and [creaking regulatory framework]() would need an overhaul. (Perhaps in a monkey's paw of such an overhaul, the FDA said it's [using AI to speed-run the approval of medications]().) "Needed are new fast-tracking authorities that allow provisional deployment of AI-generated countermeasures and clinical trials, coupled with rigorous monitoring and safety measures," they said. The serious risks posed by AI virus generation shouldn't be taken lightly. Yet, it's worth noting that the study in question hasn't made it out of peer review yet and we still don't have a full picture of how readily someone could replicate the work the scientists did. But with agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [being gutted](), and [vaccines]() and other medical interventions being attacked by a [health-crank riddled administration](), there's no denying that the country's medical policy and infrastructure is in a bad place. That said, when you consider that the administration is finding any excuse to [rapidly deploy AI]() in every [corner of the government](), it's worth treading lightly when we ask for more. **More on synthetic biology:** *[Scientists Debate Whether to Halt Type of Research That Could Destroy All Life on Earth]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()