Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.
Good day. Artificial intelligence already powers drug-discovery and materials-science research. Now, SandboxAQ and Anthropic are teaming up to make the technology even more pervasive in these fields.
Spun off from Alphabet in 2022, SandboxAQ creates large quantitative models, or models trained on lab data and scientific equations. Two areas of focus are pharmaceutical and materials research. But to use its models, companies in these sectors have had to hire specialized scientists and write complex code, according to SandboxAQ.
To make its models simpler to use, SandboxAQ is integrating them with Claude, Anthropic’s AI chatbot. This will allow scientists to query SandboxAQ models with natural language prompts.
The SandboxAQ models are currently available through an invitation-only, early-access program, said Nadia Harhen, general manager of AI simulation for SandboxAQ. The company expects to open the program more broadly in the coming weeks, she said.
To begin, scientists will have access to a model that can help identify catalysts, such as enzymes, that enable specific chemical reactions. This applies to various endeavors, among them, diagnostic development. SandboxAQ also plans to make models geared to drug discovery available through Claude.
Ease of use will hopefully translate into faster research breakthroughs, Harhen said. “Ultimately we exist to change the way scientific discovery is done,” she added.
