The Antibiotic Resistance Crisis Has a Troubling Twist
WiredAPR 2 2023
In search of new medical treatments, the old way was to test one chemical at a time. This is slow, labor-intensive, and costly. Modern computational approaches using artificial intelligence can assess the antibacterial properties of hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of molecules, enabling scientists to develop new drugs much faster and cheaper. AI has resulted in a true medical breakthrough here.
Artificial intelligence may be used in healthcare systems to reduce costs and relieve clinicians of some workload, but its use also raises important concerns. While rendering some research jobs redundant is one of these, there are also other more major downsides too — the risk of missing data, excluding important social variables, and vulnerability to cyberattacks. AI must be used with caution and regulation.