Generative AI and the Lowly Drain Fish

Labelled as a lowly “drain fish”, the Trinidadian guppy has earned notoriety for its ability to invade new environments. Trinidadian guppies can be found in the oily, noxious waters of the La Brea Pitch Lake in southwest Trinidad. They live in conditions once considered uninhabitable for fish. These guppies show remarkable adaptations, such as the ability to tolerate extreme water toxicity and potentially reduced parasite loads in this unique environment.

Studies have also shown that Pitch Lake guppies have a lower prevalence of certain parasites compared to guppies in non-polluted areas, suggesting a protective effect of the lake’s water. What this means is that the same topographical fences that restrict predator presence also confine gene flow, and predation as a selection pressure propels trait differentiation.

In the Age of AI, the question is, how can generative AI deepen our understanding of the Trinidadian guppies that flourish in the toxic waters of an asphalt lake? In Oxford, a provocative project to create the building blocks of human life from scratch has attracted £10mn in funding from Wellcome. The new research initiative, called “Synthetic Human Genome” initiative (SynHG), aims to develop foundational and scalable tools, technology, and methods needed to synthesise human genomes.

Epistemic justice is at the core of this research enterprise. Professor Joy Zhang of the Centre for Global Science and Epistemic Justice at the University of Kent will lead a dedicated social science programme of work alongside the scientific developments.

The programme will engage civil society partners everywhere in the world. It will explore, evaluate, and respond to the socio-ethical implications of tools and technologies developed by the SynHG team. One of the disquiets surrounding this bold agenda is the fear that we might be on the edge of creating synthetic body parts or even synthetic humans.

A second trouble centres around the use of generative AI technologies to revolutionise synthetic chromosome engineering. Soon we will have to decide who owns the data from these creations-and ultimately, who owns the creations themselves.

The SynHG project will utilize cutting-edge generative AI and innovative robotic assembly technologies to revolutionise synthetic chromosome engineering. Scientists are looking for transformative solutions for urgent societal challenges. One goal of the project is to produce disease-resistant cells that can be used to regenerate damaged organs like the human heart and liver. Other goals focus on how to rebuild the entire immune system.

However, we all know that science can be misused for harm and warfare. Generations have gazed upon the Genbaku Dome, which was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945. What happens if unscrupulous scientists modify or enhance humans, manufacture biological weapons, and creatures with human DNA?

Given the potential for misuse, the question for Welcome is, why did they choose to fund it? It was not an easy decision. This will be done any day soon. So doing it in a responsible way allows scientists to deal with the moral and ethical dilemmas upfront. This was a tough decision facing donors. But someone, somewhere will do it. So, Welcome decided to be ahead rather than lag in scientific advancement.

The Synthetic Human Genome Project will not only enable researchers to read DNA molecules but also to create parts of them, molecule by molecule, from scratch. The objective is to cultivate methods to assemble increasingly larger blocks of human DNA, eventually constructing a synthetic human chromosome containing the genes that orchestrate our development.

The Wellcome-funded project is led by Professor Jason Chin at the Generative Biology Institute (GBI), which is a research institute founded by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), located at the University of Oxford. The five-year multi-centre research project involves scholars from the Universities of Cambridge, Kent, Manchester, Imperial College, and the University of London.

At the beginning of the century, the Human Genome Project was finalised. Since then, we have sought the capability to write our genome from scratch. Unlike genome editing, genome synthesis will result in the determination of relationships between genome architectures and body functions.

The new synthetic genomes have the prospect of opening up unexpected areas of inquiry by designing and developing targeted cell-based therapies and virus-resistant tissue transplantation. Extensions of this work may even facilitate the engineering of new plant and animal species with fresh characteristics, including the ability to withstand harsh environmental conditions like the Trinidadian guppy.

The Human Genome Project was one of the most noteworthy scientific endeavours in history. It changed our understanding of human biology. Completed in 2003, it fast-tracked scientific progress and was the basis for future innovations in medical sciences. Wellcome contributed £210mn to that effort. AI takes that work into the infosphere revolution. Anticipation and imagination are the only limits.