The use of AI in biotechnology is changing faster than the rules governing either technology

Just_Super/Getty Images The recent announcement of novel, viable viruses created by artificial intelligence (AI) was celebrated as a major advance in the fight against antibiotic resistance .

But it also raised urgent concerns about regulation.

Alongside precision gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 and synthetic biology , AI is now making it increasingly possible to design and alter entire biological systems.

These technologies could clearly do a lot of good.

The new AI-designed viruses – bacteriophages that exclusively kill bacteria – rapidly overcame antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli.

Gene-editing itself is already contributing to medical advances such as the recently approved CRISPR-based therapy for sickle cell disease.

And synthetic biology is helping to tackle environmental challenges by employing algorithms to analyse data much faster.

But greater capability also brings greater risks of unintended consequences.

The same tools may be deliberately misused or unwittingly create risks existing regulations were never designed to anticipate.

While the science is advancing rapidly, the rules governing biotechnology are not keeping up, in New Zealand and elsewhere.

The challenge is not simply AI It would be much easier if this was merely an AI safety problem.

But there is a more fundamental issue at play: what happens when computational technologies become part of biological design? CRISPR has already changed genetic engineering by allowing scientists to make targeted changes to DNA.

Synthetic biology has expanded what scientists can do further, allowing them to design and construct biological systems.

AI adds another layer, helping researchers analyse biological information, identify patterns and generate novel genomes.