On Friday, November 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of State, U.S. National Science Foundation, and U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology convened the first ever government-led global summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled bioscience, co-hosted by Microsoft, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The AI-Bioscience Collaborative (AIBC) Summit represents a milestone in international cooperation on emerging technologies that promises to deliver innovative solutions to some of society's greatest challenges — including in healthcare, food security, and addressing climate change, to name just a few.
The AIBC Summit brought together:
- High-level government officials from Brazil, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom — representing diverse perspectives and expertise on AI and biotechnology.
- Industry leaders from global AI and biotechnology companies.
- Representatives from leading global universities and nonprofits.
Over the course of two days, AIBC Summit participants:
- Discussed the importance of leveraging international cooperation to accelerate AI-enabled biotechnology innovation across a range of fields.
- Took stock of existing global data sharing mechanisms and best practices for large biological sequence-focused datasets, alongside global gaps in data availability.
- Identified computational tools and resources that could be made more widely available for scientists and researchers to accelerate biotechnology innovation, and the potential resources necessary to enable expanded access.
- Highlighted global gaps in expertise, capacity, and interdisciplinary collaboration needed to accelerate next generation biotechnology breakthroughs.
- Discussed the importance of developing safeguards and international best practices for safe, secure, and responsible innovation in AI-enabled biotechnology.
Finally, participants identified possible voluntary mechanisms for pooling existing and new DNA, RNA, and protein data, as well as sharing expertise and tools among researchers, developers, and technologists around the world to accelerate biotechnology innovation. The AIBC plans to convene a follow-up summit.
