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DNA Helix.
CRISPR gets an AI upgrade
CRISPR, the gene-editing method that won two female scientists the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, may soon get infused with artificial intelligence. One Northern California startup called Profluent is expected to present its new paper at a gene-editing conference next month, which describes its work using AI to analyze biological data and create new gene-editing systems.
As one professor explained to the New York Times, it’s a departure from how CRISPR typically does gene replacement. Instead of altering genes based on discoveries in nature, the startup instead uses novel methods surfaced by its AI. “They have never existed on Earth,” University of California, San Francisco professor James Fraser said. “The system has learned from nature to create them, but they are new.”
Gene-editing is rife with ethical quandaries, such as questions around modifying human embryos, which could be exacerbated by the rise of AI. Still, CRISPR provides hope: it could provide cures to countless diseases and is already providing innovative new treatments for sickle-cell anemia.
Profluent also chose to open-source one of its gene editors, OpenCRISPR-1, though the underlying AI will stay under wraps, the company said.
How medical technology will transform human life - Siddhartha Mukherjee
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer and Siddhartha Mukherjee explore the many ways medical technology will transform our lives and help humans surpass physical and mental limitations. Mukherjee, a cancer physician and biologist, believes artificial intelligence will help create whole categories of new medicines. AI can spit out molecules with properties we didn’t even know existed, which has tantalizing implications for diseases currently thought to be incurable. Recently discovered treatments for things like spinal muscular dystrophy, which used to be almost certainly deadly but is now being treated with gene therapy, are just the beginning of what could be possible using tools like CRISPR gene editing or bionic prosthetics.
Mukherjee envisions a future where people who are paralyzed by disease or stroke can walk again, where people with speech impairments can talk to their loved ones, and where prosthetics become much more effective and integrated into our bodies. And beyond curing ailments, biotechnology can help improve the lives of healthy people, optimizing things like brain power and energy.
“We will become smarter, we will become hopefully more disease resistant, we will have larger memory banks,” Mukherjee explains, “And we will have the capacity to interact in the virtual sphere in a way we cannot just simply interact in the real sphere.”
Watch the full interview: From CRISPR to cloning: The science of new humans
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
- From CRISPR to cloning: The science of new humans ›
- Podcast: Tracking the rapid rise of human-enhancing biotech with Siddhartha Mukherjee ›
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- Steven Pinker shares his "relentless optimism" about human progress ›
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- CRISPR gene editing and the human race ›
Siddhartha Mukherjee: CRISPR, AI, and cloning could transform the human race
Technologies like CRISPR gene editing, synthetic biology, bionics integrated with AI, and cloning will create "new humans," says Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee.
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits down with the cancer physician and biologist to discuss some of the recent groundbreaking developments in medical technology that are helping to improve the human condition. Mukherjee points to four tools that have sped up our understanding of how the human body works: gene editing with CRISPR, AI-powered prosthetics, cloning, and synthetic biology. Gene editing with CRISPR allows humans to make precise alterations in the genome and synthetic biology means you can create a genome similar to writing a computer code.
“That technology is groundbreaking, and it really shook our worlds because I hadn’t expected it,” Mukherjee says.
Mukherjee also talks about bionic prosthetics that help us extend our hands, brains, and other body parts with artificial intelligence. AI learning algorithms mean that prosthetics like neural implants can work more efficiently, adapting to each body's specific environment and making them more effective. The last tool Mukherjee highlights is cloning, a technology that’s been around for decades but has recently become much faster and easier. Right now, these four technologies are sitting in different silos. In the near future, however, some combination of these tools will be applied to real individuals, which will profoundly impact the medical landscape of biological science and lead to what Mukherjee calls “the new human.”
Watch the full interview: From CRISPR to cloning: The science of new humans
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
From CRISPR to cloning: The science of new humans
The benefits and risks of human enhancement using CRISPR, AI, and synthetic biology.
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits down with physician and biologist Siddhartha Mukherjee to explore the recent advances, benefits, and risks of human enhancement with technology. Mukherjee’s latest book, “The Song of the Cell,” explores the history and medical science behind “the new humans,” a term he uses to describe people who have been altered in some way, initially for medical purposes and, potentially in the future, for enhancement. Bremmer and Mukherjee discuss the transformative impact of new tools like CRISPR gene-editing, AI-powered prosthetics, and brain implants that can help treat everything from movement disorders to depression.
“The idea of the human is changing,” Mukherjee says, "CRISPR, synthetic biology, prosthetic biology with AI, and cloning of individuals—that’s what I mean by the new human.”
These new medical technologies could radically improve our understanding of health and the human body, leading to a future of new medicines, cures for fatal diseases, expanded cognitive capabilities, and even communication with deceased loved ones. But there are also ethical implications to tinkering with human nature, including eugenics as a result of gene editing, the potential for AI to create toxic molecules, and the danger of real-time experimentation on the ecosystem with CRISPR. How do we balance the life-changing potential of biotech tools without changing the very nature of what it means to be human?
Watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
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Podcast: Tracking the rapid rise of human-enhancing biotech with Siddhartha Mukherjee
Listen: In the past decade, we’ve seen an explosion in medical and biotechnologies like gene editing with CRISPR, synthetic organs, cloning, and AI-powered prosthetics that are helping to eradicate disease, improve the human condition, and enhance our brain power. These developments have radically transformed our understanding of the human body and what we thought was possible. But like most new tech, there’s also potential for misuse, privacy concerns, and ethical implications. Gene editing can cure debilitating diseases but also lead to designer babies. AI learning algorithms can power neural implants but also potentially create new chemical weapons.
Ian Bremmer delves into that tension on the GZERO World Podcast with Siddhartha Mukherjee, a physician and biologist whose new book, “The Song of the Cell,” explores the science, history, and technology behind what he calls “the new humans.”
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- Podcast: Why Scott Galloway is “cautiously optimistic” about AI - but not TikTok or Meta ›
- Ian Explains: Will biotech breakthroughs lead to super humans? ›
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Ian Explains: Will biotech breakthroughs lead to super humans?
Medical technology could lead to a new breed of super humans.
On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks at the evolution of human enhancement, tracing its roots from ancient history to recent ground-breaking tools like CRISPR gene editing, AI-powered prosthetics, and brain implants. These advances hint at a future of disease eradication, independence from physical disability, and recovery from traumatic brain injury. In a few short years, they’ve radically expanded the possibilities of how technology can improve the human experience and extend our lives.
But while biotechnology has incredible, transformative potential, it also brings lots of risks. Gene editing raises the specter of designer babies, eugenics, and even the potential for militaries to create superhuman soldiers. There’s also the question of privacy and data collection, as private companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink gain further access to our medical histories. Ultimately, we need to strike a balance between embracing biotechnology’s life-changing potential while safeguarding our values, ethics and the very idea of what it means to be human.
Watch the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer on US public television this weekend (check local listings) and at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld.
- Steven Pinker shares his "relentless optimism" about human progress ›
- CRISPR and the gene-editing revolution ›
- What is CRISPR? Gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna explains ›
- Scientist Jennifer Doudna on making CRISPR technology viable — and affordable — for everyone ›
- CRISPR gene editing and the human race ›
- CRISPR gene-editing tech should have limits, says Nobel laureate ... ›
- Podcast: Tracking the rapid rise of human-enhancing biotech with Siddhartha Mukherjee - GZERO Media ›
What is CRISPR? Gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna explains
What is CRISPR? Jennifer Doudna explains You may have heard of CRISPR, but don't know exactly what it is, or how it works. Ian Bremmer asked Jennifer Doudna, who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on this gene-editing technology. CRISPR, she says, basically allows scientists to not only study but also make precise, targeted changes to DNA, the "code of life." Find out more in her interview on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: https://www.gzeromedia.com/crispr-gene-editing-and-the-human-race
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Podcast: Gene editing tech risks and rewards: Dr. Jennifer Doudna's perspective
Listen: In a wide-ranging interview with Ian Bremmer, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Jennifer Doudna discusses her groundbreaking work on the revolutionary gene-editing technology known as CRISPR. In their conversation she explains what CRISPR is and why it has the potential to cure diseases and fend off viruses. She also talks about the limits of this technology and advocates for a global policy consensus on what limitations there should be around gene editing. Policymakers must also factor in income inequality, Doudna argues, given how expensive CRISPR currently is and the potential it has to change so many lives.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.