AI Builds New Viruses

The Signal · 2026-08-10

AI just designed life from scratch. Researchers used a model trained on DNA sequences to generate entirely new viral genomes, with far less human input than before. The work moves AI beyond protein design into full genome creation, raising direct biosecurity concerns.

Also today: The UK AI Safety Institute finds leading open-weight models narrowing the gap with frontier systems on cyber capabilities.

DeepMind's forecasting model gave scientists about a full extra day of warning, improving track and intensity prediction on a storm other models disagreed over.

That's today's Signal. Thanks for watching.