Amodei predicts that powerful AI could compress 50-100 years of biological and medical progress into 5-10 years by acting as a 'virtual biologist' that designs and directs experiments rather than merely analyzing data, targeting a ~10x acceleration in the rate of foundational measurement/intervention discoveries (CRISPR-class tools) that he argues drive >50% of biology progress.

supports (2)

• SMachines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better expert_estimate
  weight

  0.85

  locator: Biology and health, 'compressed 21st century' passage

  “powerful AI could at least 10x the rate of these discoveries, giving us the next 50-100 years of biological progress in 5-10 years.”

• SMachines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better primary_testimony
  weight

  0.60

  locator: Biology and health, virtual biologist passage

  “the right way to think of AI is not as a method of data analysis, but as a virtual biologist who performs all the tasks biologists do”