A language model AI created proteins as good as ones honed over a million years of evolution.
Salesforce’s ProGen designed sequences based on the “sentences” of biological proteins.
Scientists are investigating whether the AI could identify treatment for disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Artificial intelligence is a master of imitation. Every time scientists design an AI—whether to mimic human language or master a game like chess—it either matches or far exceeds the capabilities of its biological creators. Now, AI has proven that it can even master the art of biology itself.
Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco, the University of California-Berkeley, and Salesforce Research, a science arm of the SF-based software company, developed an AI capable of copying evolution itself. This doesn’t mean the AI created some sort of evolutionary superior superhuman (yet), but instead, the AI designed sequences of 20 amino acids that make up proteins. When compared to nature’s handiwork, some of the sequences worked just as well as ones generated over millions of years of evolution. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Because proteins lie at the foundations of many illnesses, The Salesforce AI Research team is already investigating how ProGen could identify treatment for disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
So while some AIs are trained to beat humans at their own game (literally), language models like ProGen could one day put one over on evolution itself and help humans combat some of the world’s most debilitating health problems.
Recent Comments