US government, Google join Zuckerberg-backed Biohub in $1.8 billion push for AI biology data
The US government and tech heavyweights Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet are joining nonprofit Biohub to build open datasets to train AI models for biological reasearch, bringing total investment in the effort to $1.8 billion, Biohub said on Wednesday.
The U.S. government, Meta Platforms, Google's Alphabet, and Isomorphic Labs have formed Biohub, a nonprofit dedicated to creating open datasets for AI biological research. Together, they have committed $1.8 billion to the cause. The Department of Energy will contribute over $500 million, while the National Institutes of Health will manage existing datasets and repositories.
These investments aim to expedite drug development by generating predictive models from vast amounts of biological data, which currently take years to create. Biohub's head of science, Alex Rives, explained that the datasets will eventually be publicly available, but companies that fund them will have a temporary exclusive period.
The goal is to gather billions of cells' worth of data, a task that will take five years to complete. This collaboration represents a significant push in the field of AI biology, with other AI labs also working on similar projects.
Written by urgent.news from Economic Times Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
