The field of bioscience refers to any scientific field dealing with living organisms. Advances in bioscience can be used to improve healthcare and food security and address climate change. The U.S. believes that using artificial intelligence can accelerate global advances in bioscience and biotechnology – any tool that harnesses living organisms.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is an emerging technology that gives computers and machines the ability to learn, make decisions, and solve problems, similar to human intelligence. AI has already led to rapid developments in technology with a variety of applications, including financial trading, language translation, and mail delivery.
The United States hosted the first government-led AI Bioscience Collaborative Summit (AIBC) in early November. The summit brought together governments and industry leaders to discuss how to solve global challenges by integrating AI with biotechnology research and development.
Participants in the AIBC included high-level government officials from Brazil, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Representatives from global AI and biotechnology companies, universities and nonprofits also were in attendance.
Throughout the two days of the Summit, participants identified current methods of sharing biotechnology research, data, and computational tools. More importantly, however, AIBC participants identified global gaps in expertise, capacity, and interdisciplinary collaboration for bioscience. Identifying what is already available, participants will work to expand access on all levels to accelerate AI-enabled biotechnology innovation across a range of fields.
Although the summit had the goal of advancing these technologies, there must be checks and balances. That is why participants also discussed the importance of “developing safeguards and international best practices for safe, secure, and responsible innovation in AI-enabled biotechnology.”
This summit is the latest effort by the U.S. government to integrate the safe use of AI into current policy. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also recently launched the Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI and the Global AI Research Agenda to further the United States’ leadership in shaping the safe, secure and trustworthy use and development of AI that benefits all.
The AIBC plans to convene a follow-up summit. The United States will continue to collaborate with industry leaders and other countries to use AI to bring bioscience solutions to global issues.
