You'll never meet OpenAI's GPT-4b micro model — but there's a good chance it will add 10 years to your life.
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The model was developed by OpenAI in collaboration with Retro Biosciences, a company that received a $180 million seed investment from Sam Altman.
It builds on a scientific discovery known as "induced pluripotent stem cells" — a protein capable of reprogramming an ordinary living cell into a stem cell.
A stem cell contains the genetic code to develop into any organ in the human body, and the expectation is that this cell-conversion process could extend human lifespan by at least ten years.
The Japanese professor who discovered this process is Shinya Yamanaka, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for it in 2012.
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The challenge in applying this theory is that only a very small percentage of cells that undergo the process actually complete it successfully.
This is where the new AI model enters the picture.
It runs simulations of changes to the protein's structure, enabling rapid evaluation of the possible outcomes of each modification — with projections suggesting up to a 50-fold improvement in cell-conversion success rates following these changes.
Carrying out such modifications in the lab is a lengthy and highly complex process, and since there are millions of ways to arrange the building blocks of a protein, the process is simply not practical at scale.
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The company has just raised $1 billion in a new funding round, with Sam Altman once again participating in the investment.
Retro Biosciences is not alone in this space.
In 2022, Altos Labs launched with backing from Jeff Bezos and $3 billion in the bank, pursuing the same goal.
Bezos has also co-invested with Peter Thiel in another company in this field, Unity Biotechnology.
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Money can't defeat death — but the world's wealthiest still believe it can at least delay it.
In the photo:
The Retro Biosciences team