The AI-Powered Biohub: Why Mark Zuckerberg & Priscilla Chan are Investing in Data, from Latent.Space

**Nathan Labenz** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome back to The Cognitive Revolution. Today, I'm excited to share a special crossover episode from the Latent Space podcast. Latent Space, surveys say, is the number one podcast for AI engineers. And I find hosts Swicks and Alessio a consistently outstanding source of insight into the latest trends in AI-powered coding and AI application development. Today's episode, though, is a bit different. A conversation with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, who are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, about why they are doubling down on the interdisciplinary Biohub, with the goals of leading a new era of AI-powered biology, and ultimately equipping scientists to cure or prevent all disease in the coming decades. In this conversation, Mark and Priscilla describe their perspective on the current state of biology, the role they see AI playing going forward, and the strategy underlying their investments. With highlights including, why the traditional funding model fails to bring scientists, engineers, and AI experts together to tackle the most important problems in the way we might hope, their vision for a frontier biology lab that works in sync with a frontier AI lab, the acquisition of evolutionary scale, creators of leading protein model ESM3, and the appointment of CEO Alex Rivas to lead the combined program, their plan to develop new data collection techniques, which will naturally give rise to massive datasets on which new AI models can be trained, the roadmap to a virtual cell capable of simulating biological responses in silico, potentially revolutionizing not just drug discovery but our understanding of biology in general, and their ultimate vision for precision medicine, moving from clinical trial and error to true NF1 treatments designed based on each individual's unique biology.
While the conversation itself focuses on the intersection of AI and biology, for me it also serves as an important reminder of the unique role that private capital often plays in scientific progress, and considering the current moment, the importance of classical liberal values more broadly. Ironically, for all we hear that the US must win the AI race to ensure that the best AI models project American rather than Chinese values around the world, I see actors across the political spectrum pushing America toward a more Chinese model of state dominance. The civil rights violations and abuses of power we're seeing right now from the federal government are plainly un-American, and I've been glad to see prominent voices in the AI space, including Jeff Dean at Google, Dario and Chris Ola at Anthropic, and various researchers at OpenAI speaking up against them. If anything, I think the AI industry ought to consider doing more, starting by signaling that they would be willing to withhold their technology from a government that proves itself unworthy to wield such power. But at the same time, and certainly to a much lesser degree right now, I do also worry that recent proposals for confiscatory taxes, if enacted, would make moonshots like the Biohub much rarer. I do agree, of course, with Warren Buffett that it's absurd that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. But at a time when the federal government is cutting research budgets and generally acting against medical advice, society stands to benefit tremendously when self-made tech billionaires turn their formidable talents and immense resources to solving global problems and providing public goods. And even more generally, as fears of concentration of AI power grow, it only seems prudent that society should maintain a diverse set of independent power centers, which can hopefully balance and exist in equilibrium with one another. Such checks and balances were of course central to the Framer's vision for the US government. And in my view, they remain essential for societal dynamism and resilience today. With that, I'm grateful to Swix for allowing me to cross-post this conversation. I of course recommend subscribing to the Latent Space feed, where they've just brought on new hosts to cover AI for Science on a dedicated basis. And I hope you enjoy this preview of the future of AI-driven biology and medicine. With Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan from the Latent Space Podcast.

**Alessio** (4:28)
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Latent Space Podcast. This is Alessio from the Kernel Labs, and I'm joined by Sviks, Editor of Latent Space.

**Swyx** (4:34)
Hello. We're so delighted to be in the Imaging Institute of CZI with literally C and Z. Welcome, Mark and Priscilla.

**Priscilla Chan** (4:41)
Thanks for having us. Thanks for getting nerdy.

**Mark Zuckerberg** (4:43)
Yeah, we're excited to do this.

**Swyx** (4:45)
We so don't often get to see this side of you, and so thank you for taking some time out to talk about this. And it's like, you know, sort of the 10-year anniversary kind of CZI. So I just wanted to introduce people, if people have not been caught up. One of the interesting things that we found out just from talking to your teams is there's an interesting difference between how you guys started CZI and the Gates Foundation. And I heard that Bill Gates is a mentor of yours. So maybe you could tell that story of deciding to start CZI and deciding to pursue basic science instead of translational work.