OpenAI Researcher in Talks to Launch AI Drug Discovery Startup

OpenAI researcher Miles Wang is in talks to launch his own startup that would apply artificial intelligence technologies to discover and develop new pharmaceuticals. According to the available information, the valuation under discussion is $2 billion.

The funding talks point to investor interest in using AI to achieve breakthroughs in the life sciences. This area is seen as one of the more promising avenues for putting large AI models to practical use beyond the traditional fields of text and image processing.

Details about the structure of the future company, the makeup of its team, and the specific problems it plans to tackle with AI have not yet been disclosed. It is also unclear which investors are involved in the talks or what stage they have reached.

The move by researchers at major AI labs such as OpenAI into their own ventures in adjacent industries has become an increasingly common phenomenon of late. Drug development has traditionally demanded significant time and financial resources, and applying machine learning methods is viewed as a way to speed up the process — from finding promising molecules to predicting their properties.

The startup's high valuation at such an early stage reflects a broader rise in investor interest in projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

Source: TechCrunch