PerturbAI and OpenAI use AI agents to hunt for drug targets

US biotechnology company PerturbAI and US artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI have shared results from a project they worked on together. They used nearly 2,000 AI agents, which are computer programs that can work on tasks, to study information about living things. The AI agents came up with possible explanations that could help scientists find new targets for medicines.

The companies worked with Scripps Research to study information from millions of mouse brain cells. They completed the analysis in just 32 minutes. The results were announced on Wednesday, October 21. The project lasted one year and aimed to help scientists connect results from experiments with earlier published research. It also aimed to help them find important questions to investigate through more experiments.