Check out all the on-demand sessions from the Intelligent Security Summit here. For many, hearing the word E. coli is often a reason to be concerned, as the bacteria can lead to incidents of food poisoning in humans. As it turns out, E. coli might well be the panacea that enables a new form of generative AI for healthcare that could help enable researchers to generate new antibodies. Generative AI in recent years has captured popular imagination by enabling users to generate text or images on demand, but its uses go much deeper, too. Generative models that provide large machine learning (ML) models that can create new things is an emerging area in science helping to accelerate discovery.

The world is making rapid progress in the areas of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. These are the core drivers of what many analysts have come to refer to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, epitomised by the increased whittling away of the boundaries that hitherto existed between the physical, digital and biological worlds. There is a clear imperative for pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists and medical professionals in the field of research and development in developing countries like Nigeria, to increasingly tap into this world of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and partake of the revolution that is happening before our very eyes. And the reason is simple. Artificial Intelligence is helping to make pharmaceutical research and new drug discovery less expensive and definitely more productive. Researchers realise that in the time that it would have taken to test the efficacy of say a handful of chemical molecules manually, with AI, it is possible to test several hundreds of different chemical molecules.

It's not much of a surprise to find Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing a central role in the pharmaceutical industry. Chinese firms are relying on AI to put more drugs on the market, and by extrapolation extend better services. The country is gathering momentum for an artificial intelligence-backed drug discovery boom. All thanks to the nation's emphasis on innovation-driven development, these companies are going through a continuously improving innovation ecosystem, according to industry experts and business leaders. "It is not a question of whether China will become a powerhouse in AI-driven drug development even though it started relatively late (in the field). The only question is when that will happen." said an Industry Leader in AI-based Drug Discovery.

BenevolentAI, a UK company using artificial intelligence for drug development, has raised $115 million in new funding, mostly from undisclosed investors in the United States. Existing backer Woodford Investment Management also participated in the round, which brings the company's total funds raised to over $200 million. "We are very pleased with the response to the fundraising," Ken Mulvany, founder and chairman of BenevolentAI, said in a statement. "It reflects the rapidly growing global interest in the AI pharmaceutical sector and the recognition of our place as the dominant player within it. We have come a very long way since we founded the business in 2013. The capabilities of our technology didn't exist six years ago. We are the pioneers in this sector and have evolved into a fully integrated, AI-enabled drug development company with the ability to deliver better medicines at previously unimaginable speeds -- this ultimately means patients will receive the right medicines, at a lower cost, in less time."