AI lately is a topic of hot debate in terms of the value it brings to society. It is without a doubt that no one on Earth yet fully knows the potential of AI. There are so many concerns about things that both exist more in sci-fi than reality but, there are real concerns we are seeing in our everyday lives now. The discussions range from AI generated art to the ability to generate incredibly convincing deepfakes and various privacy and security concerns.
AI sits at a pivotal point that most technologies face when they are new: what is the benefit they are providing? AI presents the ability to process and sort mass amounts of data that would take humans an extremely long amount of time to process. Scientists across multiple organizations have started to use AI trained to recognize compounds that may potentially exhibit antibiotic properties. In utilizing this technology the time it takes for scientists to do their work is greatly reduced, which will also help to lower costs.
These specifically trained AI then can process through thousands, potentially millions, of possible compounds to narrow down to only those that could be useful as medicine, this allows scientists a better chance of finding a life-saving compound while also greatly cutting down on time needed. The compounds currently identified by the AI are certainly not going to be on the market tomorrow as they will still need to undergo extensive testing but the longest most tedious part of the research, identifying compounds of interest, has been vastly accelerated.
It has come to the attention of scientists and the public alike that the world is facing a crisis of antibiotic resistance with a great number of road blocks to development of novel antibiotics. In a race against the clock to have new antibiotics ready before this issue effectively hits critical mass, anything that can shorten the time and simultaneously reduce the cost of finding new antibiotic compounds is essential. AI may be a double edged sword in some ways however, this is no small issue to overcome and AI presents a large potential step forward. The world needs more antibiotics and soon and the faster that goes the more companies are willing to invest both their time and money.
Find out more here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65709834
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