AI could help lead to an Alzheimer's cure

Jacob Trefethen · 2 Aug 2025

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The tools that make biology powerful for medicine are the same tools that make it dangerous, so the benefits and the misuse risk cannot be separated.

Their wordsSome models could be used both for good and ill, yes. Diffusion models in particular could be used by bad actors to hallucinate toxins or other harmful proteins.

Also said by Kevin Esvelt

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Designing candidate molecules already feels like magic, but the arrival of new drugs at a doctor's prescription pad will not be sudden.

Their wordsThe design of the initial molecules to test is pretty magic-feeling, and is happening already – but the arrival of new drugs prescribed by your doctor will not be magical and sudden.
Our reading
The tools that make biology powerful for medicine are the same tools that make it dangerous, so the benefits and the misuse risk cannot be separated.

Their wordsSome models could be used both for good and ill, yes. Diffusion models in particular could be used by bad actors to hallucinate toxins or other harmful proteins.
Our reading
AI tools are already making scientists more productive and creative, and more discoveries should follow.
Mental modelLeverage

Their wordsAI tools are helping make scientists more productive and creative already, and more discoveries should follow.

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