When Artificial Intelligence Meets Microbes: An Essay

For today’s speech, I would like to talk about something truly fascinating—the connection between such disparate topics as Artificial Intelligence and Microbiology. Tell me, have you ever wondered how the tiniest organisms on Earth can both make you sick and cure you? Have you ever wondered how we could learn to harness their power to help humanity? Well, then, look no further, because that, dear friends, is the precise topic of today’s lecture.

Microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi or microscopic algae, inhabit every surface on Earth. They are responsible for making food, medicine, making our planet habitable and even inside our bodies: most human organs would not be able to function without a microbiome. But since these creatures are so small, we need special techniques to examine them closer. A microbiologist, when trying to learn about a certain microbe, will peer into a microscope, observe its movements, study its structure, culture a sample so that it multiplies and can be tested and perform a myriad of other tasks.

But what if there is a better way? What if we could utilize one of our greatest achievements in technological progress, Artificial Intelligence, to peer into the world of microbes?

Artificial Intelligence can achieve many things. But the most interesting applications of it, in my opinion, are connected to the study of microbiology. Scientists hope that one day, AI will allow them to peer into a petri dish with cultured microorganisms and tell them what they need to know about these organisms. For example, one application is studying antibiotic resistance. When bacteria stop being affected by antibiotics and become immune to them, it becomes considerably harder to get rid of. By analyzing genetic information and test results, scientists will be able, with the help of an AI, to determine what genetic sequences give a microbe antibiotic resistance, which bacteria are more likely to develop it and what other information can help in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Another exciting prospect is the application of AI to determine what drugs can be produced with the help of bacteria. Many bacteria and other microbes are capable of producing a plethora of different substances. Scientists can examine these substances for their potential medical application and subject them to trials. But since there are many candidates for the job, this process can be automated by an AI, which can score them based on desirable characteristics and narrow down the list for scientists to examine.

But there is much more to the application of AI to microbiology than medical research. Imagine looking into the heart of an ocean and seeing billions of bacteria that live alongside corals, sponges, molluscs and other aquatic organisms. Some of these bacteria can be examined for antimicrobial properties, but many have yet to be understood. Scientists hope that one day, AI will allow them to sort through the diversity of the microbial world, studying their genomes and looking for potential candidates for drug production, biomedical engineering and other purposes.

The same goes for environmental protection, where scientists are eager to utilize AI to sort through the genetic material of bacteria and other microbes that can break down man-made pollutants, help clean water, filter air and accomplish other tasks. And finally, there is the study of the human microbiome, which has the potential to improve human health in ways beyond imagination. But no matter how far scientists can push the boundaries of medical progress with the help of AI, there is one limitation, one rule of thumb that cannot be broken: no matter how convincing a computer-assisted genetic analysis may be, it cannot prove anything on its own. Only laboratory experimentation and rigorous scientific research can confirm or disprove a hypothesis. And that is why AI, fantastic and powerful as it may be, will never replace human researchers, no matter how powerful its algorithms and neural networks may be.

 

But what can it bring us, then? In my opinion, the most exciting prospect of AI is the opportunity to combine human insight with computer power to analyze huge amounts of data, searching for patterns that would take ages to spot manually. The power of an AI is not in its ability to surpass humans, but rather in its ability to complement them. That is why I am so incredibly excited about the prospects of AI and its relationship with microbiology, genetics, medicine and many other sciences. It has the potential to improve human life and lead us to new medical breakthroughs never thought possible.

 

And now, let me close by saying just how exciting I find the prospect of studying the tiniest organisms on Earth. No matter how small they are, they have so much potential, and Artificial Intelligence will assist us in seeing what other incredible things microbes can do.