Scientists use AI to develop flu vaccine

Scientists at the Flinders University in Australia have developed a flu vaccine using artificial intelligence (AI). As part of the vaccine development process, scientists used two AI programs: one was taught to recognise vaccines that worked against the flu and those that did not; the second created a large number of imaginary compounds and then put together a shortlist with what the program thought to be the 10 most effective. According to Professor Nikolay Petrovsky, the use of AI ‘had accelerated the vaccine discovery process, cut costs massively, and had enabled the development of a more efficient vaccine’. The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the study, is now working on putting the vaccine on trial.