And They Names it Evo — an AI trained on trillions of bases

[jedishrfu]

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...open-source-ai-trained-on-trillions-of-bases/

This is for @Evo: Hello Mrs Calabash wherever you.

—- Ars Technica article exerpt follows

Late in 2025, we covered the development of an AI system called Evo that was trained on massive numbers of bacterial genomes. So many that, when prompted with sequences from a cluster of related genes, it could correctly identify the next one or suggest a completely novel protein.

That system worked because bacteria tend to cluster related genes together—something that’s not true in organisms with complex cells, which tend to have equally complex genome structures. Given that, our coverage noted, “It’s not clear that this approach will work with more complex genomes.”

 

[jedishrfu]

Wow, my thread is front page news! Now if anyone here would like to discuss it to keep it there.

We're shooting for like a couple of weeks. :-)

 

[OmCheeto]

Wow, my thread is front page news! Now if anyone here would like to discuss it to keep it there.

We're shooting for like a couple of weeks. :-)

Well, as we used to say in the olden says; "How does this knowledge affect the price of rice in China?"
As an oldster, I'm worried about things trying to kill me.

According to this article in the Lancet;

"Each year, an estimated 7.7 million deaths globally are caused by bacterial infections—one in eight of all global deaths—making bacterial infections the second largest cause of death globally."
{bolding mine}

Now, if I were not living the high life here in the naughty colony, I'd be worried about such a thing. But I do, so I don't.

 

[OmCheeto]

On the other hand, according to this article, we'd all be dead without bacteria.

"Some bacteria are indisputably bad. But others boost our immunity, protect us from infection and produce the enzymes we need to digest our food. Without these bacteria, we wouldn't survive, says Dr. Martin Blaser, author of the new book "Missing Microbes.""