Vital Signs with Jacob Effron and Nikhil Krishnan Ep 61: Co-Founder of Chai Discovery Joshua Meier on 99% Faster Drug Discovery, BioTech’s AlphaGo Moment, Building Photoshop for Molecules
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Sep 22, 2025 
Joshua Meier, co-founder and CEO of Chai Discovery and former Chief AI Officer at Absci, dives into the transformative role of AI in drug discovery. He explains the evolution through three waves of AI, achieving success rates once deemed impossible. The conversation reveals how AI models think differently from human chemists and the implications of open-sourcing foundational models. Joshua highlights the creativity of AI in generating solutions and discusses key milestones that could redefine the future of pharmaceuticals and biotech.
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Biology Preceded NLP On Sequence Modeling
- Biology researchers discovered language-model-like sequence methods long before modern NLP popularized them.
- Protein sequence analysis parallels masked/prediction techniques used in language models today.
Three Waves Of AI In Biotech
- AI drug discovery has evolved in three waves: early research, data-focused approaches, and today's compute-enabled design wave.
- Wave 3 borrows modern ML advances and yields much higher laboratory success rates than prior eras.
AI Speeds Clinical Trial Paperwork
- AI brings immediate value in clinical trial and regulatory workflows by automating document creation and review.
- Efficiency gains here shorten time spent on bureaucracy without changing safety standards.