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Re:Scientists use ML to find an antibiotic able to kill supe... by xzel on Friday February 21, 2020 @10:49AM (#22383956)
I'm saying I'm tired of the puff piece articles and reddit style headlines. I was saying NN's and other "AI" style models has been used in this way for decades for these types of things. 0 disrespect to the actual science; the paper is great and I truly hope it works in humans. We need more drugs against the inevitable fight against drug resistance.
Re:Scientists use ML to find an antibiotic able to kill supe... by redsymbol on Friday February 21, 2020 @10:59AM (#22384071)
Okay, fine... what do you want to be different about the situation, then?

Do you not want any non-technical summary articles like this to be written? So that only those with the training to understand a Cell journal article would be able to learn anything about the result?

Or do you prefer that no journal articles be published that rely on 2020-era NN models, because older articles based on less state-of-the-art NNs have been published already?

Re:Scientists use ML to find an antibiotic able to kill supe... by xzel on Friday February 21, 2020 @12:07PM (#22384696)
I'd much prefer there be more detail in the article about AI research in drug discovery, how it still needs clinical trials in humans. I agree with the sub-comment as well. I think your last question doesn't make sense to me though as I haven't said anything similar to that.

But I think you raise an interesting point about non-technical summary articles: what do they do and who are they for? Does the non-technical public need to know about this research? Do they gain anything vs. reading the study's actual summary? I'm not sure. I do think there isn't much for non-technical people to get from this article that would be useful. I think the best reason would be for younger people to pique their interest in the field. Though, I honestly don't know the answer.

Re:Scientists use ML to find an antibiotic able to kill supe... by redsymbol on Friday February 21, 2020 @12:15PM (#22384766)
Yeah, good points. I guess such non-tech articles serve several purposes.

I do think this one gives non-technical people get something useful, though. More broadly, it'll increase science understanding among the non-scientist/non-technical public, at least on this topic, and good does tend to come out of that.

Re:Scientists use ML to find an antibiotic able to kill supe... by sp332 on Friday February 21, 2020 @11:27AM (#22384332)
The story could be about perseverance paying off, instead of a breakthrough portending big changes in near-future drug development.