Scientists are identifying potential treatments for coronavirus via artificial intelligence

To battle the novel coronavirus that's been linked to Wuhan, China, researchers are using artificial intelligence to discover potential treatments, including already-approved drugs and completely new compounds. At the same time, the pneumonia-like illness has only gotten worse. As of Friday morning, the 2019-nCoV coronavirus had taken the lives of more than 600 people and infected more than 30,000, with cases documented in at least 25 countries. Researchers at the British artificial intelligence startup Benevolent AI say they used the tech to search for existing approved drugs that might be helpful in limiting the virus's infection. Another set of scientists affiliated with Deargen, a drug discovery company based in South Korea, say that they used deep learning to find various available antiviral drugs that could be investigated as a potential treatment (that research has not yet been peer-reviewed). Meanwhile, a Maryland-based biotech company, Insilico, said it used AI to come up with new molecules that could serve as potential medications, and it will now synthesize and test 100 of the compounds, according to Fortune.