A key test will come with a Phase IIb study by Benevolent to assess a previously unsuccessful compound from Johnson & Johnson in a new disease area - this time for treating Parkinson's disease patients with excessive daytime sleepiness.
Big pharmaceutical companies like GSK, Sanofi and Merck are now exploring the potential of AI through deals with start-ups.
They are treading cautiously, given the failure of "high throughput screening" in the early 2000s to improve efficiency by using robots to test millions of compounds. Yet AI's ability to learn on the job means things may be different this time.
CPR Asset Management fund manager Vafa Ahmadi, for one, believes it is a potential game-changer.
"Using artificial intelligence is going to really accelerate the way we produce much better targeted molecules. It could have a dramatic impact on productivity, which in turn could have a major impact on the valuation of pharmaceutical stocks," he said.
Drugmakers and start-ups are not the only ones chasing that value. Technology giants including Microsoft, IBM and Google's parent Alphabet are also setting up life sciences units to explore drug R&D.
For Benevolent's Hunter, today's attempts to find new drugs for ALS and other difficult diseases marks an important test-bed for the future of AI, which is already being deployed in other high-tech areas such as autonomous cars.
"The aim is to show that we can deliver in a very difficult and complex area. I believe if you can do it in drug discovery and development, you can show the power of AI anywhere."
This article was provided by Reuters.