Instead of a traditional education in a meth lab, the neural network was trained on a database of known psychoactive substances.<\/p>\n
After diligently studying the structures of these drugs, the model progressed onto creating its own concoctions.<\/p>\n
The rookie chemist proved to be a fast learner. In total, it generated structures for a whopping 8.9 million potential designer drugs.<\/p>\n
While others would now retire to a life of experimental inebriation, the diligent researchers had further work to do.<\/p>\n
Their ultimate objective was identifying new drugs before they end up in the hands of users. Law enforcement agencies could then outlaw the substances before they\u2019re even synthesized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of these designer drugs have never been tested in humans and are completely unregulated,\u201d said study co-author Dr Michael Skinnider, a medical student at the University of British Columbia. \u201cThey are a major public health concern to emergency departments across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uppers and downers<\/h2>\n
The team still needed to test their approach\u2019s predictive powers. To do this, they compared the system\u2019s substances to 196 drugs that had emerged on the illicit market since<\/em> the model had been trained.<\/p>\n They discovered more than 90% of the new drugs inside the generated set. Cue the inevitable Minority Report<\/em> comparisons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that we can predict what designer drugs are likely to emerge on the market before they actually appear is a bit like the 2002 sci-fi movie, Minority Report<\/em>, where foreknowledge about criminal activities about to take place helped significantly reduce crime in a future world,\u201d said senior author Dr David Wishart, a professor of computing science at the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t tell Dr Wishart, but Minority Report<\/em> ended (***SPOILER ALERT***) with the \u201cPrecrime\u201d unit getting totally dismantled. Still, the researchers had one more trick to try before they risked the same fate.<\/p>\n![\"Designer](\"https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2021\/11\/Screenshot-2021-11-19-at-13.29.53.png\")