Artificial intelligence has reached a remarkable new milestone. Researchers have successfully used generative AI to design entirely new bacteriophage genomes—viruses that infect bacteria—which were then synthesised in the laboratory and shown to function successfully. This breakthrough represents one of the first demonstrations that AI can generate complete, viable genomes rather than simply analysing or modifying existing DNA.

In this episode, we explore how genome language models such as Evo 1 and Evo 2 are learning the "language of life" by training on millions of genomes, enabling them to generate novel biological designs that evolution itself has never produced. The research demonstrates the enormous potential of AI-guided synthetic biology, including new treatments for antibiotic-resistant infections, personalised phage therapies, sus ...