Overall Impact of AI-Driven Discovery Platforms

In this interview, Edoardo Madussi, Head of Business Development, Intelligencia AI discusses the potential impact of AI-driven drug discovery platforms like DeepSeek and Qwen, highlighting their democratizing potential while also acknowledging challenges related to data quality and validation. The conversation explores the potential disruptions to current R&D practices, including the acceleration of drug discovery and the optimization of manufacturing and supply chains.

The discussion also addresses the potential risks associated with relying heavily on open-access AI models, including data security, intellectual property concerns, and the potential for biases in underlying datasets. Finally, the interview touches upon the environmental impact of AI, emphasizing the energy consumption of large language models while acknowledging the potential for AI to improve efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint of drug development.

What are your overall thoughts on the potential impact and key challenges of AI-driven drug discovery platforms and how do their capabilities compare to those that already exist?

First and foremost, the huge difference is that DeepSeek is coming out with a clear and true open access platform for all different types of researchers to be able to leverage those models. This is probably the key difference which makes the AI technology more accessible for maybe smaller research centers or smaller pharmaceutical providers that may not necessarily have the budgets of the large pharmaceutical companies. The challenge in that is, depending on how the information flows through these platforms, there may be some quality concerns in terms of the data that is being inputted in the models and how companies like DeepSeek may be doing proper data cleansing.

There is on one side, the democratizing of the of the AI, as a lot of providers are trying to push for. On the other, the less strict the barrier for entry is, the less chances there are to maintain the high level of quality that is absolutely paramount in something like drug discovery — where a small tweak into a molecule may cause extremely high and serious side effects into the actual outcome of the potential drug.