What if evolution could be simulated in a lab? At the intersection of artificial intelligence, biology, and evolutionary science, researchers have unveiled a tool that might just rewrite the rules of protein engineering.

Leveraging the power of large language models, evolutionary biologists have successfully simulated 500 million years of evolution. Called the EvolutionaryScale Model 3, or ESM3, this multimodal generative AI model created a green fluorescent protein that’s 58 percent similar to its closest, real-world cousin.

Researchers used an AI to simulate over 500 million years of evolution and created an entirely new protein we've never seen before.