Synthetic viruses could also be used as vectors for gene therapies or as a biological tool against agricultural pathogens, among other applications. Still, the study raises concerns about the potential misuse of AI to create viruses that could serve as bioweapons. In some cases, the synthetic viruses were able to defeat E. coli strains that ΦX174 itself cannot infect, the researchers reported. However, the scientists who wrote the accompanying commentary caution that research labs should avoid experimenting with synthetic viruses that infect not bacteria but eukaryotic organisms such as humans. Such synthetic genomes, they write, could encode new pathogens capable of infecting humans, animals, or plants in ways that cannot be addressed with existing protective measures.