AI for Public Good Drug Discovery Advocacy Efforts and a Further Call to Action

This document presents an update on the progress made by the AI for Public Good Drug Discovery Project Advisory Group following the publication of the 2021 GPAI report, Artificial Intelligence for Public Good Drug Discovery: Recommendations for Policy Development. Our previous report presents a series of policy recommendations, with the aim of effectively leveraging AI for the purpose of combating global public health challenges, including the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the threat of future pandemics. These recommendations were centered on three broad themes: 1. Government leadership on incentivizing or pursuing tasks related to these significant public health threats that are not sufficiently addressed by private industry. 2. Emboldening the uptake of AI throughout the drug research and development process. 3. Accelerating progress through promotion of Open Science and Open Data practices wherever feasible. Following the publication of our report, the focus of the Project Advisory Group turned to advocating for and supporting the implementation of our recommendations. This update document will summarize our progress along two separate approaches. The group has pursued extensive engagement with relevant stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, to spread awareness of our recommendations, encourage their uptake, and receive further feedback on how to maximize the effectiveness of our efforts. A summary of the results of these engagements makes up the first component of this report. Second, we outline a call to action for the broader AI community, to make a more direct impact on critical public health challenges. We outline apossible avenue, via a novel international initiative, tasked with deploying AI-enabling expertise and resources to impactful points of intervention throughout ongoing antibiotic R&D projects.