Researchers create world’s first flu vaccine from AI

For the first time ever, Australian scientists have used technology and medical science by creating a flu vaccine through artificial intelligence.

Researchers from Flinders University recently made a breakthrough by using AI to create a ‘turbocharged’ flu vaccine generated via a computer running program called ‘SAM’ (Search Algorithm for Ligands) that invented the drug on its own, an invention the researchers claim is a world first.

“It [SAM] has theoretical ability to acquire knowledge and then make new ideas,” team lead Nikolai Petrovsky said. “Obviously you have to train it or teach it. We took existing drugs that we know work, we took examples of drugs that don’t work or have failed.”

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Petrovsky explained that they showed all the examples to SAM, which then came up with its own suggestion of what can be an effective adjuvant. They then took that sample and after testing it, it successfully worked, as per ABC News.

“This confirmed that SAM not only had the ability to identify good drugs but in fact had come up with better human immune drugs than currently exist,” Petrovsky said. “So we then took these drugs created by SAM into development with animal testing to confirm their ability to boost influenza vaccine effectiveness.”

Business Insider reported, Petrovsky said this invention will potentially cut down the normal drug discovery and development process by decades and will save hundreds of millions of dollars. He further mentioned that a 12-month clinical trial of the new AI-created vaccine will soon get underway in the US.