Zuckerberg joins forces with Hassabis: $1.8 billion to tackle 'virtual cells' Beating AI News: Biohub, a biomedical research institution founded by the Zuckerberg couple, announced the expansion of the Virtual Biology Initiative (VBI). Google DeepMind, Meta, and Isomorphic Labs have joined the collaboration, with a total investment of $1.8 billion in funds, data, and research resources from all parties. Isomorphic Labs is an AI pharmaceutical company founded by Hassabis. This plan aims to enable AI to learn how to predict the behavior of living cells. For example, by administering a drug to a cell, AI can predict what changes it will undergo. In the future, researchers can first test on computers and then decide which experiments are worth conducting in the laboratory, thereby accelerating the development of new drugs. The biggest challenge currently is the lack of training data. Biohub states that existing large datasets only have records of hundreds of millions of cells, while accurate predictive models may require billions or even trillions. The team expects to produce the first batch of data in about a year and strive to develop a reliable predictive model within five years. Google DeepMind, Meta, and Isomorphic Labs have invested a total of $300 million. The US Department of Energy plans to invest over $500 million within five years, while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will provide data resources accumulated from previous investments of over $500 million. These data will eventually be made available to researchers worldwide. However, commercial investors can exclusively use the data generated with their own funding for one year before opening it to the public. Government funded data is not subject to this restriction. [Original link]