The fight against antibiotic resistance is growing more urgent, but artificial intelligence can help

The increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria globally causes up to 1.2 million deaths annually. Discovering new antibiotics has the potential to save millions of lives, but the process is costly, lengthy and difficult to achieve. Artificial intelligence (AI) can allow researchers to quickly design and assess new potential drugs. In 2019, researchers at the MIT Jameel Clinic, including Regina Barzilay, used a deep learning approach to identify the antibiotic Halicin, which had previously failed clinical trials as a treatment for diabetes.