[Interview] The Current Status Of AI In Drug Discovery And Looking Forward Into 2018

Without a doubt, the area of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a sensation lately -- judging by the amount of hype around this topic. But the hype is not a guarantee of a real breakthrough, which is defined by facts and measurable achievements, not just loud statements.

The fact is, however, AI-driven systems managed to learn chess at a champion level in just 4 hours, and beat human champions in Jeopardy, and Go -- we all know that. And Facebook can recognize faces in a blurry photo where you are hanging out with a bunch of friends -- not worse than you (human) can do. You can try and see it for yourself anytime -- it works!

If it is not enough, here is a list of pretty much everything AI can do already today, speaking in practical terms. With this, it is becoming obvious that the progress in the AI space is quite real and the practical benefits are quite tangible, albeit there are a lot of technological and organizational challenges to overcome yet.

What is important to realize, though, is that the AI technologies hold a substantial disruptive potential, which can (possibly) transform the whole industries and redefine status quo. It is something to keep in mind if we talk about maintaining a long-term innovative competitiveness.

At BioPharmaTrend we are striving to find out what the AI-driven innovation really means for the biopharmaceutical industry, and drug discovery research in particular.

According to a recent CB Insights report, a review by BenchSci, and a BioPharmaTrend analysis, there is a growing pool of active and well-funded AI-driven startups focusing on drug discovery and development, while some big pharma players are already involved in pilot projects related to AI-driven research. It means, that a lot of life science leaders and biopharma investors are excited about the opportunity, or at least curious.

I decided to find out answers to some of the intriguing questions about AI in drug discovery/biopharma from the first hands.

Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, co-founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine -- a company leading the way in the applications of AI to drug discovery and age-related research, agreed to comment on what has been going on in this area lately, and what to expect in 2018.