Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Drug Discovery and the Achievement of Next-Generation Human-Centered Health System

Conceptualized in Japan, Society 5.0 sets an ambitious goal of advancing the human endeavor from the current information-intensive society to a knowledge-intensive society by creating a human-centered society based on the integration of cyberspace with real-world physical space, exploiting the powers of artificial intel-ligence technologies for the betterment of all human life at both individual and societal levels. It is a society that uses technological advancement objectively to provide an equitable and fair distribution of the world’s resources, circumventing the current inter-personal and global-regional based disparities and inequalities. Such a society will be incomplete without a human-centered health care system, designed to understand patients holistically and provide suitable comprehensive solutions to a patient’s health needs. Artificial intelligence (AI) in the drug discovery process uses machine learning and deep learning computational models that enhance the under-standing of disease heterogeneity, identify dysregulated molecular pathways, and find the right therapeutic target as well as the appropriate drug candidate during the discovery and design process; thereby, improving efficacy and speed of drug discovery. AI can use deep learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data from scientific text and publications relating it to a patient’s clinical data and laboratory characteristics and thereby identify suitable candidates for inclusion in a particular clinical trial. AI can also predict the responses to therapy including drug-drug or drug-food interactions. Another crucial aspect of achieving a human-centered health care system will be the protection and upholding of basic human rights as enshrined in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Drug development has notable impact on some of these rights and now even more so with the incorporation of AI and machine learning. In this chapter, we outline a brief overview of some of the uses of AI in the drug development process. We discuss the possible influence of AI-enhanced drug discovery in a human-centered health care system with special reference to the drug discovery process, the challenges of availability of therapeutics, especially in low-and middle-income countries, and the challenge posed by the energy crisis on big pharma. And finally, we touch on the human rights issues posed by AI in drug discovery.