Testing intelligence
Atomwise opens up its AI drug screening platform to partnerships, and skeptics
An explosion in access to high-power hardware and deep computer learning has made companies like Atomwise Inc. confident that artificial intelligence (AI) can finally deliver on its decades-old promise to accelerate drug discovery. The company plans to put hundreds of its computationally discovered compounds in investigators' hands through its new awards program, but the question is whether the results of awardees’ experiments will validate the platform and win over skeptics jaded by years of AI hype.
Computer algorithms have been touted as revolutionary time- and cost-savers for drug development since the 1980s, but have yet to substantially lower either hurdle. However, Atomwise and others believe growth in computer processing power and in deep-learning methods over the last decade could be the difference-makers that fulfill the technology's promise for molecular design. ...