AI Designs Viruses That Kill Bacteria

Scientists have used artificial intelligence, or AI, to design new viruses in a laboratory. These viruses do not infect people. They infect bacteria.

The team made viruses called bacteriophages, or phages. A phage is a virus that attacks bacteria. The researchers tested the new phages on E. coli, a common kind of bacterium. Some of the AI-designed phages could grow inside the bacteria and kill them.

This could one day help doctors fight bacterial infections that are hard to treat with antibiotics. But the work is still early. Scientists say new rules and careful checks are important when AI is used to design living things.