Artificial Intelligence
Biohub leads $1.8 billion cell AI effort
Biohub, backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, was coordinating a $1.8 billion effort with technology and government funders to build AI models for predicting cell behaviour and sharing datasets.
- Biohub was coordinating a $1.8 billion effort to train AI models on cell behaviour, according to Reuters.
- Biohub had already pledged $500 million in April for its five-year Virtual Biology Initiative.
- Meta, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs were contributing a combined $300 million.
- The United States Department of Energy was investing more than $500 million over five years in lab measurements and compute, and the National Institutes of Health were coordinating datasets built with more than $500 million in earlier federal funding.
- Biohub research lead Alex Rives said commercial funders would get one year of exclusive access to the data they paid for, and Biohub said a first dataset should be ready in about a year.
Biohub, which is backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, was coordinating a $1.8 billion effort to train AI models on cell behaviour, Reuters reported. The article said the work was intended to help drug development, and Biohub had already pledged $500 million in April for a five-year programme called the Virtual Biology Initiative.
Meta, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs were providing $300 million combined. The United States Department of Energy was putting in more than $500 million over five years for lab measurements and compute.
The National Institutes of Health were coordinating datasets built with more than $500 million in earlier federal funding, and Biohub planned to standardise them for AI training. According to Biohub research lead Alex Rives, commercial backers would get a year of exclusive access to the data they funded before it was released publicly.
Biohub said government-funded work would not have that restriction. It said the first dataset should be ready in about a year.
Named in this story
People
- Mark Zuckerberg
- backs Biohub
- Priscilla Chan
- backs Biohub
- Alex Rives
- is Biohub’s research lead
Companies
- Meta
- is contributing to the project
- Google DeepMind
- is contributing to the project
- Isomorphic Labs
- is contributing to the project
Organisations
- Biohub
- is coordinating the funding effort
Governments and agencies
- United States Department of Energy
- is investing in lab measurements and compute
- National Institutes of Health
- is coordinating datasets built with prior federal funding
How the source tells it
Mostly neutral reporting, with a mild optimistic frame around AI’s promised scientific payoff.
- optimism future medical gains are used to justify the spending