alt Hacker NewsI don't like AI, but ... how exactly should AI be unable to come up with working solutions in a fully automated lab? The problem set is finite. Either AI can solve things, or it can not, but there really is no objective reasons why AI could not possibly solve xyz, e. g. drugs binding to a molecular receptor - that is a finite problem set. So there must be another explanation here. Either that the quality is lacking, or that some people are anxious of losing money here.
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There is no such thing (yet?) as a fully automated lab. We can't tell if a drug will pass basic first toxicity screening (e.g. if a healthy mouse is given a small dose of the drug, will it kill or otherwise significantly harm the mouse?) without actually doing experiments on mice.
What do you mean by the problem set is finite?
Because "fully automated lab" doesn't include "put it into humans and observe them for years."
It's trivial to make drugs that are as-promising as working drugs in the lab, but then end up not to be actually working drugs in people.
The claim by AI CEOs is that AI will cure most diseases in the next 10 years.
Even if it could automate lab work fully today, that still wouldn't get you close to that.