An AI wrote an entire microbial genome. The Evo2 model was trained on 9 trillion DNA letters much as other AIs train on internet text, and when given a chunk of a microbeâs genome, was able to create a plausible-looking version of the rest.
The researchers did not synthesize the resulting microbe, and it likely would not have lived if they had â DNA is less forgiving of errors than English text â but they did demonstrate significant control: In a separate experiment, Evo2 wrote DNA sequences that encoded Morse code messages in the shape of the chromosomes. Further advances are needed to create true AI-generated life, but âthese AI models are the âChatGPT momentâ for synthetic genomics,â one researcher told Nature.