AI could help us discover new drugs inspired by nature

"Our work proves that AI algorithms can be employed in a targeted manner to design active ingredients with the same effects as natural substances, but with simpler structures," Schneider says, adding: "This helps not only to manufacture new drugs, but also places us on the cusp of a potentially fundamental change in medical- chemical research." That is to say, the ETH research group's methods make it possible to find drugs that do the same things as existing drugs but are based on different structures. This could make it easier in future to design new unpatented molecular structures. There is currently intense debate regarding both the extent to which AI could be used to systematically circumvent patent protection and the possible patenting of molecules designed by "creative" AI. In any case, the pharmaceutical industry will have to adapt its research approach to a new rulebook.