A "very significant turning point” that could unlock a new era for treating disease. Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses which are fully functional, researchers say. It’s the first time that whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI. But while the resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people - experts warn that AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns. AI tools are rapidly advancing and have already been used to design new antibiotics - though designing viruses is believed to be a much more complex process. Tap the link in our bio to find out what the researchers hope to achieve. (Getty, Stanford University) #AI #Virus #BBCNews