AI designed a drug that could reverse aging. Early clinical trials are promising

Artificial intelligence has long been imagined as the future of medicine. The idea that AI will someday cure cancer is widespread enough that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently posted that “saying that AI will cure cancer is more a cliché than it is inspiring,” while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that curing cancer wouldn’t be “enough” and that “we should set our sights higher.” Despite the hype, an AI-based miracle cure has yet to arise. But a different medical breakthrough may be on the horizon, courtesy of an AI-designed drug that early trials suggest could reverse the effects of aging. Turning back the clock The drug, called rentosertib, was created by Insilico Medicine, an AI-based company that designs and develops drugs. It developed the molecular structure for Rentosertib, for example, with assistance from AI. Last year, researchers tested rentosertib in a clinical trial using so-called “aging clocks” to measure the drug’s effect on participants’ aging, and the results were published this week in Nature Biotechnology. Aging clocks use AI technology to estimate how quickly a person’s body is aging (and how close they are to dying), using various biological, physiological, a…