AI and the Fountain of Youth

Technological advances may turn back aging, extending the average life span by at least a decade.

A recent study out of Stanford University found that the human body doesn’t age gradually at an equal rate over time. Instead the body undergoes major biological shifts—in other words, aging—at roughly ages 44 and 60. Having just crossed that second milestone with a first skin cancer diagnosis and two back surgeries to show for it this year, I can confirm that aging doesn’t creep. It pounces.

For generations, we’ve accepted this decline as inevitable. But that assumption may no longer hold true. Science fiction is becoming reality.

A study published last month in the medical journal Cell describes a remarkable experiment in which researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Capital Medical University in Beijing genetically modified a type of human stem cells, mesenchymal progenitor cells, and infused them into monkeys. Over 44 weeks, the animals’ brains, bones and reproductive tissues showed measurable signs of not only halted aging but significant rejuvenation. Inflammation decreased, cellular function improved, and no harmful effects appeared.

Even more astonishing, when the researchers collected the exosomes—tiny molecular communication packets secreted by the altered stem cells—from these cells while the cells were growing in a petri dish, they found that these exosomes alone could replicate much of the antiaging effect in the monkeys. Researchers aren’t merely slowing aging; they’re learning how to reverse it.

Artificial intelligence is supercharging that ambition. Thanks to AI, the process of identifying and developing new drugs, once a decadelong slog, is being compressed into months. AI can design molecules to target precise regions of a protein, simulate how they’ll behave in the body, use massive computing...

AI is going to make some groups of people even more sedentary than they already are and sitting too much can be a factor in obesity and poor health. Lots of people are going to wind up looking like the fatties on that movie WallE

I just don’t go to doctors or dentists because I have never had one tell me something I wanted to hear.

the last time I went to the dentist was 40 years ago and he said I needed some impacted wisdom teeth out, but he could not do it for some reason.

Fortunately my neighbor had some pliers and he pulled it out like it was nothing at all.

Thanks to AI, the process of identifying and developing new drugs, once a decadelong slog, is being compressed into months. AI can design molecules to target precise regions of a protein, simulate how they’ll behave in the body, use massive computing...

Thank Goodness that nobody is using AI to create deadly new diseases or accelerating "germ warfare" using AI. /s

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