  Accurate and reliable forecasting of emerging dominant severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants enables policymakers
and vaccine makers to get prepared for future waves of infections. The last
three waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections caused by dominant variants Omicron
(BA.1), BA.2, and BA.4/BA.5 were accurately foretold by our artificial
intelligence (AI) models built with biophysics, genotyping of viral genomes,
experimental data, algebraic topology, and deep learning. Based on newly
available experimental data, we analyzed the impacts of all possible viral
spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) mutations on the SARS-CoV-2
infectivity. Our analysis sheds light on viral evolutionary mechanisms, i.e.,
natural selection through infectivity strengthening and antibody resistance. We
forecast that BA.2.10.4, BA.2.75, BQ.1.1, and particularly, BA.2.75+R346T, have
high potential to become new dominant variants to drive the next surge.
