I'm guessing it created it the same way i created a giant eight limbed creature called an Octophant, using a piece of paper and a pencil.
It does not make it exist.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Fuck AI
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"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
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AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
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According to this non-paywalled article, it created thousands of potential genomes from which the scientists running the experiment chose three hundred promising candidates. They then had bacteria make those and used them for their bacteriophagy experiment. So essentially the AI made the blueprints that the scientists then turned into real stuff.
Let's get real here. Could the bacteria make my Octophant if I clean up the pencil lines?!
Cat girls first dangit! Get in line.
Unfortunately the science hasn't gotten that far yet, but maybe in the future.
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Same question to you, why would you do this?
Consider the military and industrial applications of the octophant.
[You Have Been Reported to the Raytheon Ethics Board]
[All Clear. Proceed]
[Congratulations on your Sydney gottlieb ethics in STEM award! The bonus should show up in your account by Monday!]
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Same answer: The hubris of man.
Same way we all created the sun, and built a house next to it as children. All without picking up a hammer. Lazy kids.
A version of this came out of a DND campaign. They're called octen. Like oxen, but octen. They're like regular oxen, except they have eight legs. The legs have the same fur and color as cattle legs, but then bend up and move like a tarantula's.
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Why go for the cures right?
That's literally what a bacteriophage is.
For the uninitiated, the scientists created bacteriophages, viruses that eat bacteria and are being studied as a way to cure bacterial diseases without using antibiotics. Non-paywalled article: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/06/safety-fears-as-scientists-make-first-viruses-designed-by-ai
For real. I hate AI but people need to read the damn article.
Sorry, but the anti-AI movement is about as well informed as the anti-vax and flat-earth movement.
I am pro-AI and yet fully agree it needs to be ethically and responsibly used and regulated. Data super-centers bad, Grok bad, ChatGPT bad, etc.
I have even seen people say "LLMs can only be chatbots and all chatbots are bad!" Not understanding that this type of research, as well as weather prediction, and animal behaviour studies, all use LLMs.
And every time I've attempted to broach the subject, I've been accused of being an OpenAI fanboy, etc.
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The title is misleading. It wasn’t an LLM, but a bespoke, dedicated system.
And yes, I know that’s sort of “AI,” but these days when that word is used, the average person equates it to ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever text chatbot they’re familiar with.
This basically has nothing to do with that. Scientists have been making models for design and data synthesis forever.
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Don't fucking post images of headlines.
Find a source that isn't paywalled and link to the article. Or don't post anything at all.
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"Grok. Engineer me a highly infectious virus. Optimize it to have high lethality to ethnic groups other than my own, but low lethality to my own ethnic group."
This world is cursed.
“My AI created a virus that cures all autoimmune diseases!”
*squint* “this is just HIV”
AI is a synthetic virus.
This is like watching Contagion from 2011 during the pandemic.
Umbrella Corporation is coming along nicely, I guess?
That graphic looks like the cover of an O'Reilly book
Well, this IS an important milestone towards curea for many illnesses and problems, and yes, this is a field where AI could actually accel and be a great tool
I have a long list of issues with AI, but this ain't on it.
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We really are the dumbest of species, aren't we?
Are you saying this because researchers made a bacteriaphage? Are you under the assumption that they are, or can be, dangerous to us?
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does it actually exist or is it a "simulation" again
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we've been using ai for decades, just not like the llm ai
"AI cloned Will Smith and then filmed him eating spaghetti!" ...the media are fucking lost when it comes to AI news. They're just creating propaganda at this point.
Ehh this is a milestone. If you can engineer a virus you can also engineer a cure.
This virus IS the cure. You need to look up what a bacteriophage is. It physically cannot infect you the same way HIV or any other virus you know of does.
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