A Brighter Future: AI Has the Power to Replace Animal Testing
Updated: 47 minutes ago
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly evolving, and with its advancements comes a growing unease. The fear? That AI will become so sophisticated it will render many human jobs obsolete. This isn't science fiction – it's a concern shared by experts and everyday people alike. With all the worry and apprehension AI has caused so many of us in recent years, what if AI could be used for something good? Good news. It can. AI has the power to replace animal testing.
AI is already being used to analyze existing data to predict how chemicals would react in animals.
“I’m very excited about the application of AI models like ChatGPT to extract and synthesise all of this available data, and getting the most out of it,” said Joseph Manuppello, a senior research analyst at the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine, a US non-profit.
Many experts have marveled over how accurate the results actually are. Thomas Hartung, a toxicology professor at Johns Hopkins University in the US, and also the director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, said, “AI is as good as a human, or better, at extracting information from scientific papers.”
This conclusion is supported by PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who has long stated that the current systems being used for analysis are archaic.
Faulty data aside, there are even bigger issues. According to PETA, the failure rate of the actual experiments themselves is astoundingly high. 95% of drugs tested on animals fail in clinical trials with humans.
Professor Hartug believes animal testing still exists because of the need to check the toxicity of new chemicals. Software has long been used for this purpose but AI systems can be trained to do this for us and with even more accurate results.
“This is suddenly creating opportunities that were not there before,” he says, adding that AI is now involved in every stage of toxicity testing. AI is even being used to create new drugs in the first place.
AI is also being used to develop new drugs, though there are concerns about data bias. Some argue that AI is already more accurate than animal testing. One project, called AnimalGAN, is training AI to predict how rats would react to chemicals.
Another project, Virtual Second Species, is creating an AI-powered virtual dog. Regulatory approval is a major challenge for AI testing, but some groups believe it can replace animal testing entirely. PETA falls into this camp and even takes it step further claiming virtual reality (VR) software makes testing on animals obsolete.
In a March 2023 article on their site, PETA discusses how doctors are ditching animal training methods and turning to VR software. This VR tech creates realistic simulations of the human body, allowing medical professionals to practice procedures in a safe and ethical way.
One example is OB/GYN residency programs, where VR simulators are replacing practices on animals. This shift is not only more humane but also aligns with the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) goals of using AI and VR to expedite the development of safe medical products.
The FDA's endorsement of AI and VR in drug development further strengthens the case for their adoption. As PETA rightly points out, these advancements can render animal testing entirely obsolete, ushering in a new era of ethical and efficient medical progress.
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