Roundtable to examine AI-designed viruses

Stanford University PhD student Samuel King used a generative AI model in 2025 to propose genetic blueprints for microscopic viruses, offering an early indication that AI could help design new biological forms. The work is not yet an example of AI-generated life, but it points toward that possibility and has already placed King among MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35.

Senior AI reporter James O’Donnell will interview King in a live roundtable about the research, its implications for biology, and new ways of seeing living systems through computational design. The session is scheduled to go live on October 16th at 18:30 BST / 1:30pm EDT / 10:30am PDT, with O’Donnell and King, a Bioengineering PhD Candidate at Stanford University/Arc Institute, listed as speakers.