AI invents "more effective flu vaccine" in world first: research

PanARMENIAN.Net - A "turbocharged" flu vaccine created by a computer with artificial intelligence in South Australia is set to be trialled in the United States, ABC reports.

linders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky has told the ABC the computer running a program called Sam invented the new drug on its own, in what he claimed was a world first.

"It [Sam] has theoretical ability to acquire knowledge and then make new ideas," Professor Petrovsky said.

"Obviously you have to train it or teach it.

"We took existing drugs that we know work, we took examples of drugs that don't work or have failed.

"We essentially showed all of that to the AI program called Sam and then Sam came up with its own suggestion of what might be an effective adjuvant, which we then took and tested, and sure enough, it worked."

Professor Petrovsky said a 12-month clinical trial of the vaccine was about to get underway in the US.

Each year's regular flu vaccine is an inoculation against four strains of the virus.

The chosen strains are decided by the World Health Organisation, according to which ones were prevalent in the previous northern or southern hemisphere flu seasons.

This year's Australian vaccine for people aged over 65 contains a component in it which boosts their immune system.