April 10, 2018
Scientists have started to teach computers about as many chemical reactions as they can, in an effort to help AI better understand the world. So, in the future, if the scientists’ efforts pay off the way they have planned, these machines can help scientists understand the properties of molecules, through retrosynthesis, to then make an important scientific breakthrough that could revolutionise the way we see the world.
Retrosynthesis is essentially working backwards to find out how a specific molecule was made looking at its conditions as well as the elements that go into making it. Scientists are using computers rather than humans, who have been carrying out similar experiments for many years before. However now the technology is at a stage where we are able to comprehensively ‘teach’ a computer about many different subjects, one of these being chemistry, and from the data that the scientists give the computer, it can then form conclusions and ‘learn’ more efficiently and effectively than humans, who are inconvenienced by human error.
One particular scientist Marwin Segler, has been using his expertise of Artificial Intelligence and organic chemistry and has merged the two, to ideally help humanity understand molecules and how they are formed. Segler has assisted Artificial Intelligence to comprehend over twelve million scientific chemical reactions, by imputing the data and letting the machine do the rest.
In addition, it’s not just the field of chemistry that is being revolutionised by AI. We all know that the technology is being used for more worthwhile causes, such as within medicine… (Hyperlink to electric skin article).
Chemists are using AI to understand what goes in to making molecules, whereas AI in the medical field is being used to help medical professionals, such as Radiologists and Pathologists, better understand an individual’s body. This is highly effective when helping said doctors in their everyday job, because AI is becoming more efficient at understanding medical imaging.
We, as a society, now have the technology capable of putting theoretical concepts of Artificial Intelligence into practise. Of course, medicine and latest technologies should go hand-in-hand as the more advanced the technology becomes the better it will be for health processes, as medical professionals can treat a larger amount of people and in a more effective way.
Clearly, society is becoming more advanced thanks to the technology we have access to, and this AI retrosynthesis machine is going to aid understanding into what goes in to making the substances that surround us. The best part is that the technology being used to aid potentially major scientific achievements like these, are happening all the time. So who knows, maybe someday soon one of these potential scientific breakthroughs will revolutionise the way we see the world?
AI and retrosynthesis, producing a molecule…
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-03977-w
Artificial intelligence for medical imaging…
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/medical-imaging-is-healthcares-artificial-intelligence-bellwether
