[wizzwizz4]

I could synthesise this theoretical virus the computer spat out, that may or may not be deadly (or even viable). Or I could download the HIV genome from the arXiv, and synthesise that instead.

(Note: as far as I can tell, nobody's actually posted HIV to the arXiv. Small mercies.)

[dekhn]

The sequence of HIV is published and has been for a very long time. In fact there's a wide range of HIV sequences: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=...

You could synthesize that genome but it wouldn't be effective without the viral coat and protein package (unlike a viroid, which needs no coating, just the sequence!).

I should point out that in gene therapy we use HIV-1 derived sequences as transformation vectors, because they are so incredibly good at integrating with the genome. To be honest I expected work in this area would spontaneously and accidentally (or even intentionally) cause problems on the scope of COVID but (very fortunately) it never did.

One would like to be able to conclude that some virus work is inherently more safe than other virus work, but I think the data is far to ambiguous to make such a serious determination of risk.