Bringing principles of ethics to AI and drug design

Researchers believe that artificial intelligence has the potential to usher in an era of faster, cheaper and more fruitful drug discovery and development. Over the years, researchers have used AI to analyze troves of biological data, scouring for differences between diseased and healthy cells and using the information to identify potential treatments. More recently, AI has helped predict which chemical compounds are most likely to effectively target SARS-CoV-2. But with AI's potential in drug development comes a slew of ethical pitfalls -- including biases in computer algorithms and the philosophical question of using AI without human mediation. This is where the field of biomedical ethics -- a branch of ethics focused on the philosophical, social and legal issues in the context of medicine and life sciences -- comes in. In mid-March, adjunct Stanford University lecturer Jack Fuchs, PhD, moderated a discussion about the need for clearly articulated principles when guiding the direction of technological advancements, especially AI-enabled drug discovery.