Scientists Use Meta AI to Discover 70K New Viruses

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Above: Visitors visit the booth of Meta at the 6th China International Import Expo in Shanghai, China on Nov. 6, 2023. Image copyright: CFOTO/Contributor/Future Publishing via Getty Images

The Facts

  • Researchers out of China, Hong Kong, and Australia used US-headquartered tech giant Meta's artificial intelligence to discover 162K RNA viruses, 70.5K of which were never before discovered.

  • Scientists Eddie Holmes of Australia and Mang Shi of China worked with Chinese tech company Alibaba to develop an AI model called LucaProt, which allowed them to sequence virus genomes throughout the environment.

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The Spin

Narrative A

AI is completely revolutionizing medical research and healthcare for the better. Between this new technology of discovering unknown viruses and other AI models that identify diseases from patient histories and biobanks, these machines will be able to diagnose human conditions at blazing speed.

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Narrative B

While AI will undoubtedly become a major tool in the medical field, it can't replace the human aspect of the healthcare industry. Even medical coders, whose job it is to develop patient record analysis technology, will always be necessary to carry out human-focused care.

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Metaculus Prediction

Go Deeper

What is Artificial Intelligence?
What is Artificial Intelligence?
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