A study recently published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology indicated the discovery of a new antibiotic using artificial intelligence technology that can eliminate a deadly, drug-resistant bacterial infection.

The results of this study revealed a new antibiotic, Abaucin, that can kill a type of superbug called Acinetobacter baumannii, which is a dangerous type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect wounds and may lead to pneumonia. They usually live in hospitals.

The researchers explained that they used artificial intelligence technology after first training it to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of compounds in inhibiting the growth of bacteria. Then, data on 6,680 new compounds were entered. The artificial intelligence program was able to exclude thousands of compounds from them and choose a limited number that were likely to be effective. The amazing thing is that the artificial intelligence only took less than two hours to select these compounds, which is a very small time compared to what it takes researchers to carry out this process.