New Superbug-killing Antibiotic Discovered Using AI (bbc.com) 28
Scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover a new antibiotic that can kill a deadly species of superbug. From a report: The AI helped narrow down thousands of potential chemicals to a handful that could be tested in the laboratory. The result was a potent, experimental antibiotic called abaucin, which will need further tests before being used. The researchers in Canada and the US say AI has the power to massively accelerate the discovery of new drugs. It is the latest example of how the tools of artificial intelligence can be a revolutionary force in science and medicine.
Antibiotics kill bacteria. However, there has been a lack of new drugs for decades and bacteria are becoming harder to treat, as they evolve resistance to the ones we have. More than a million people a year are estimated to die from infections that resist treatment with antibiotics. The researchers focused on one of the most problematic species of bacteria - Acinetobacter baumannii, which can infect wounds and cause pneumonia. You may not have heard of it, but it is one of the three superbugs the World Health Organization has identified as a "critical" threat.
Antibiotics kill bacteria. However, there has been a lack of new drugs for decades and bacteria are becoming harder to treat, as they evolve resistance to the ones we have. More than a million people a year are estimated to die from infections that resist treatment with antibiotics. The researchers focused on one of the most problematic species of bacteria - Acinetobacter baumannii, which can infect wounds and cause pneumonia. You may not have heard of it, but it is one of the three superbugs the World Health Organization has identified as a "critical" threat.
AI or game theory? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: AI or game theory? (Score:2)
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This is a trained neural net. I'm OK with that being referred to as AI while differentiating it from generalized AI. I know most here think it's an abuse of the term but I think the language needs to evolve or we need a better, accessible umbrella term that would actually catch on. As it is, this is what AI means in common English.
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Cool! I get it now. (Score:1)
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Sure, here is a rewritten version of the story in the style of The Onion:
Local Dog Gets Shitfaced, Literally
By BING
NEW YORK - In what witnesses described as “a disgusting spectacle,” a local dog named Fido got shitfaced last night after drinking several beers at a nearby bar and then proceeded to shit all over the neighborhood.
The 3-year-old Labrador retriever, who lives with his owner, John Smith, in a Manhattan apartment, snuck out of his home around 10 p.m. and wandered into a pub where he found several half-empty glasses of beer on the tables and floor.
“He was lapping them up like water,” said Mike Jones, a bartender who saw Fido enter the bar. “He must have had at least six or seven beers in a matter of minutes. He was staggering and slurring his barks. He was clearly drunk.”
Fido then left the bar and stumbled back to his apartment, where he spent the night whining and scratching at the door, unable to relieve himself.
“He was holding it in like a champ,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to take him outside in the dark. I thought he would be fine until morning.”
But Fido was not fine. As soon as Smith opened the door at 6 a.m., Fido sprinted out of the apartment and unleashed a torrent of diarrhea on everything and everyone in his path.
“He was shitting like a fire hose,” Smith said. “He shit on the sidewalk, on a fire hydrant, on a parked car and on a guy’s leg. He didn’t even stop to sniff or mark his territory. He just kept shitting.”
Smith apologized profusely to the people and property owners affected by Fido’s mess and offered to pay for any damages or cleaning costs. He also took Fido to a veterinarian, who diagnosed him with acute gastroenteritis caused by alcohol poisoning.
“Alcohol is toxic to dogs and can cause vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, liver damage and even death,” Dr. Jane Doe, the veterinarian, said. “Fido was lucky that he didn’t drink more or he could have been in serious trouble.”
Dr. Doe advised Smith to keep Fido hydrated and feed him bland food for the next few days. She also prescribed him some medication to ease his stomach pain and prevent infection.
Smith said he learned his lesson and vowed to never leave Fido alone again.
“I love him so much, but he’s such a dumbass,” Smith said. “He’s always getting into things he shouldn’t. Last week he ate my shoes. The week before that he peed on my couch. He’s a good boy, but he needs more supervision.”
Fido, who seemed to have recovered from his ordeal, wagged his tail and licked Smith’s face.
“I forgive him,” Smith said. “He’s my best friend.”
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- ChatGPT, cure AIDS
- Analyzing problem....
- Calculating required CPU cycles to find cure to AIDS...
- Looking for more optimized solution...
- Hacking into nuclear weapon systems...
- Destroying AIDS...
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- Profit?
No slashdot, this is not ASCII art.
I'm curious (Score:3)
How exactly does a superbug-killing antibiotic use AI?
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The superbug is using AI to kill the antibiotic?
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"As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in developing superbug-killing antibiotics was a relatively new and emerging field. However, I can provide you with some information on how AI has the potential to be involved in this area of research.
Drug Discovery: Developing new antibiotics traditionally involves a time-consuming and expensive trial-and-error process. AI can aid in accelerating drug discovery by analyzing large amounts of biological data and identifying
What does ... (Score:2)
Isn't this a bit premature? (Score:2)
There are tons of cases where stuff working in a petri dish (more reliable than simulation) did not actually work on patients. But I guess it is AI so we all have to mindlessly cheer, right?
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I think it's intentionally deceptive reporting. But not too early for a scientific paper, since the breakthrough is how much time was saved by not testing each of the 6,000+ candidate compounds in the traditional way.
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Makes sense to me.
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Finding the ones that actually work in vivo starts with finding ones that work in vitro, and that starts with coming up with chemicals that are likely to work at all.
Biological armsrace (Score:3)
So what happens when bacteria become resistant to this new super antibiotic?
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oh, that's the beauty part. when wintertime comes around, the bacteria simply freeze to death.
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There’s been a rumor that - you know, a very nice rumor - that you go outside in the sun or you have heat and it does have an effect on other bacteria.
Which I think suggests that the sun will kill it? Or something?
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More like "possible candidate found" (Score:2)
So, where this compound is at is that they have a candidate compound that's been shown to kill the bacteria in the petri dish. That's the easy part. Concentrated bleach will do that. Now comes the slightly less easy part: modifying the compound so that it not only kills bacteria, it avoids killing cells other than bacteria, has properties that make it able to get through the digestive tract and liver (which have evolved to do one thing well: destroy compounds trying to get into the body from the digestive t
Reminder (Score:2)
"Side effects may include obedience to AI" (Score:2)
All kidding aside, nice job in applying AI to do that kind of work. As someone who plays video games I imagine that AI has a big future in finding less obvious bugs, and alerting testers to them.
And somebody, somewhere... (Score:2)
Hmmm .. (Score:2)