The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group encourages new ways of doing science, nurturing breakthroughs, and fostering a community built on a shared passion for discovery. Our team is constantly seeking new ideas and emerging fields where early investments in science have the power to upend dogma, overcome a stuck point, or catalyze momentum in a field. Ask Anything Change Everything provides a forum for anyone in the broader community to share blue-sky ideas with the Frontiers Group. This is your opportunity to spark conversations about the rapidly evolving landscape and future uses of AI in biology, which may help shape future open calls for new funding opportunities.  

Ask Anything, Change Everything is a campaign to ask our community to imagine: 

What AI should exist – but doesn’t yet – to revolutionize our understanding of fundamental biology?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly advancing field with diverse implications and potential uses across science, technology, health, and everyday life. We seek visionary ideas on how to expand AI’s capabilities to unlock knowledge of fundamental principles of basic biology. AlphaFold transformed the field with accurate predictions of protein structures; what is next? Submitters are encouraged to think boldly about the use of AI in biology in the future (i.e., what will AI look like in 2050?) and to avoid more incremental ideas being pursued now with public and private funding in biotech or academic sectors. For example, ideas around using AI to accelerate drug discovery and impact translational medicine (‘lab-in-the-loop’) are not a good fit. We know AI is a family of approaches and welcome all ideas related to biology writ large that encompass different AI models and applications, e.g., machine learning, neural networks, data science, and generative models. Issues around the ethical usage of AI, including data privacy and bias, should also be considered.

Submission deadline is March 5, 2025.