Stanford's Evo 2 designs real viruses — are we ready for biological AI?

stanford researchers synthesized nearly 300 phages from dna sequences generated by the evo 2 model, with 16 showing strong bactericidal activity against e. coli. led by brian hie, the team focused on bacteriophage Φx174 to prove the model's capability to design viable biological organisms. this validates the use of large-scale ai for drug discovery and pathogen engineering. it raises significant safety questions regarding the accessibility of tools for creating biological agents.