The Bright Side of AI

The Bright Side of AI

How artificial intelligence can revolutionize biology and healthcare, changing our lives

Eduardo Felipe Matias

The arrival of of what is known as “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) raises numerous concerns, many of which have already been addressed in this column on previous occasions. However, while warning about the darker side of this technology, we must not lose sight of the benefits it can bring, which is the driving force behind the extensive research and investments being made in this field.

In a recent article titled Machines of Loving Grace, which generated significant discussion in Silicon Valley, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, seeks to demonstrate “how artificial intelligence could transform the world for the better.” It is worth noting that, despite his role as an entrepreneur in the sector, Amodei is not inclined to see AI through rose-colored glasses. On the contrary, he has a history of concern about the risks associated with it, having co-founded Anthropic alongside colleagues who left OpenAI, particularly due to disagreements over issues related to safety in AGI development research.

In the article, he discusses what he calls “powerful AI” – he dislikes the term AGI, but that is essentially what he is referring to – which he believes could emerge as early as 2026. This would resemble today’s large language models but with vastly superior capabilities, to the extent of being “smarter than a Nobel Prize winner” in areas such as mathematics, programming, and engineering. Furthermore, these systems could operate on a large scale, collaborating in a coordinated manner, like a highly specialized workforce, forming what he describes as “a country of geniuses in a datacenter.”

The ability of such AI to accelerate scientific research could condense what would otherwise take a century of scientific progress into just a decade, a phenomenon he calls the “compressed 21st century.” This would yield advances in various fields, and while Amodei addresses five categories, the potential in two of them – “Biology and Health” and “Neuroscience and Mind” – is particularly striking.

Much of the historical progress in biology has stemmed from a small number of discoveries that paved the way for groundbreaking techniques – such as CRISPR, which enables precise gene editing in living organisms and earned its creators the Nobel Prize in Chemistry four years ago. The mRNA technology, which has already facilitated the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines, suggests the possibility of “vaccines for anything,” paving the way for the prevention and potential eradication of most natural infectious diseases.

While the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honored purely human ingenuity, this year’s prize recognized Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind for developing AlphaFold, an AI model that promises to revolutionize biomedicine and biotechnology by unraveling the three-dimensional structures of proteins. With the accelerated evolution of AI, equally revolutionary new tools could emerge at an exponential pace.

In diseases such as cancer, AI could enable highly personalized treatments tailored to the specific genetic profile of each tumor. This kind of precision medicine, currently labor-intensive and expensive, would become scalable, drastically reducing mortality rates. Furthermore, AI could pave the way for advanced methods to protect against or cure genetic diseases, such as interventions using optimized versions of CRISPR aimed at correcting predispositions to certain conditions during the embryonic stage.

In the field of neuroscience, Amodei predicts similar advancements. AI’s contribution to traditional areas like molecular biology and genetics is especially promising for mental health, where many psychiatric disorders remain poorly understood and difficult to treat. AI-assisted research could lead to the invention of new drugs that modulate neurotransmitters with greater precision, improving mood and cognition, thereby enhancing emotional well-being. It could also deepen our understanding of the genetic foundations of mental illnesses, enabling preventive measures similar to those applied in physical health, and drastically reducing the time required to develop treatments or even cures for complex disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.

Amodei also addresses other positive societal impacts that AI could have, such as those related to economic development and poverty reduction. In agriculture, for instance, it could boost genetic engineering and trigger a second Green Revolution, increasing crop yields, optimizing fertilizers, and automating processes to make food production more efficient and resilient. By strengthening food security, AI could help reduce the economic gap between rich and poor countries. Additionally, AI-based solutions for climate change – such as carbon removal or clean energy technologies – could mitigate the environmental problems that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable nations.

The acceleration of scientific discoveries will thus enable humanity to tackle some of its most pressing challenges. If developed responsibly, powerful AI has the potential to radically improve our lives. It’s a good way to start the year on an optimistic note. Happy 2025!

Eduardo Felipe Matias?is the author of the books “Humankind and its borders” and “Humankind against the ropes”, winners of Premio Jabuti, and coordinator of the book “Startups Legal Framework”. PhD in International Law from the University of Sao Paulo, he was a visiting scholar at the universities of Columbia, in NY, and Berkeley and Stanford, in California, is a guest professor at Funda??o Dom Cabral and a partner in the business law area of?Elias, Matias Advogados.

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Article originally published in Portuguese at época Negócios magazine: O lado iluminado da IA | Na Fronteir@ | época NEGóCIOS

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