Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt take on AI

EARLY LAST year, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a machine-learning algorithm to look for new antibiotics. After training the system on molecules with antimicrobial properties, they let it loose on huge databases of compounds and found one that worked. Because it operated in a different way, even bacteria that had developed a resistance to traditional antibiotics could not evade the new drug. Your browser does not support the audio element. Behind the success was a deeper truth: the algorithm was able to spot aspects of reality that humans had not contemplated, might not be able to detect and may never comprehend.