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Researchers have used artificial intelligence to design sixteen functional viruses entirely from scratch — and not just theoretical constructs. These are bacteriophages, viruses that target bacteria, built without any natural template. It's a milestone that simultaneously excites virologists and raises serious questions about biosecurity guardrails in an era of generative biology.
Shifting to software security, npm has introduced staged publishing for Node.js packages, putting a human approval step between a maintainer's code and the moment it becomes installable by millions of developers worldwide. Versions now queue up and require a two-factor authentication challenge before going live. Given how aggressively supply chain attacks have escalated, it's a meaningful friction point in the right direction.
And across the Atlantic, the British government is consulting on whether employers should be required to seek employee consent before deploying AI-assisted workplace surveillance tools. Productivity monitoring software has quietly spread through offices for years, often without meaningful disclosure. This consultation signals that the regulatory conversation is finally catching up to what workers have long suspected is already watching them.
That's where the week stands. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
