India, Nov. 8 -- On August 6, the journal Science published a study from Stanford and the Arc Institute in which artificial intelligence designed the genomes of 16 functional viruses. The viruses infect bacteria, and the work could help develop new treatments. What it showed is that AI can now contribute to the design of complete, functioning viruses.

Earlier this year, OpenAI and Ginkgo Bioworks connected GPT-5 to an automated laboratory and tested more than 36,000 reaction compositions across six rounds of experiments. The cost of producing a benchmark protein fell from $698 to $422 per gram, based on the reaction components used, though people were still needed to keep the lab running. Taken together, these results show design and tes...