PLAYING GOD AND OTHER PLANS

In his new book, genome entrepreneur Adrian Woolfson asks the ultimate question: if we can author life, how should we use that power? Talking Al, synthetic genomes and the future of our species with Woolfson.

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For billions of years, evolution worked through random variation. Nature couldn’t predict outcomes. Now, we can use AI to design genomes from first principles and physically build them, turning biology into a predictive engineering material, programmable like computer code.

Instead of editing existing organisms - which is equivalent to marking a document - we can now write entirely new genetic sequences. If nature never evolved corn or rice, those crops simply wouldn’t exist. But there are countless useful biological possibilities that nature never explored. Now we are learning to design them ourselves.

How far along are we really? Is this still theoretical?

It’s very real. We can already synthesise viruses and bacteria from chemicals. Soon we'll be able to build yeast. We can’t yet make complex animals, but the trajectory is clear. It’s like the Wright brothers, we’ve lifted off the ground. We're not flying jets yet, but we know flight is possible.