These diseases were thought to be incurable. Now AI is unlocking new treatments

Artificial intelligence is inventing new drugs against Parkinson's disease, antibiotic-resistant superbugs and many rare diseases – progress that many scientists never dreamed possible. For around half a century, humanity has been slowly losing its battle against bacteria. The most powerful weapons we have in this fight, antibiotics, are increasingly ineffective as drug resistance spreads. Around 1.1 million people now die every year from infections that were until recently easily treated. And the death toll is expected to rise to more than eight million by 2050 unless urgent action is taken. Developing new antibiotics is a frustratingly slow and expensive process. Between 2017 and 2022, just 12 new antibiotics were approved for use, the majority of which were similar to existing drug-types that bacteria are already developing resistance to. The field has been chronically neglected due to a lack of interest from drug companies and underfunding. But now researchers are looking to close the gap – and some are betting on artificial intelligence to help them do it. "We can – in a matter of days or hours – look at massive libraries" of chemical compounds to identify those that display a