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Gates Funds $1 Million AI Alzheimer's Prize (ft.com)

(Tuesday August 19, 2025 @11:02AM (msmash) from the moving-forward dept.)


Bill Gates is [1]funding a $1 million competition to spur the use of AI to find innovative treatments for Alzheimer's disease, the latest effort to deploy the promising technology to find cures for humanity's toughest illnesses. From a report:

> The [2]Alzheimer's Insights AI prize will be awarded to the team that comes up with the most original way to program AI-powered agents that are "capable of independent planning, reasoning, and action to accelerate breakthrough discoveries from existing Alzheimer's data."

>

> Â The winning tool will be released for free on the Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative's cloud "workbench" to be used by scientists globally, the organisation said on Tuesday. The prize is being financed by Gates Ventures, the family office of the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder.



[1] https://www.ft.com/content/b93286a9-be6c-4e0f-8896-026b78c2e279

[2] https://www.alzheimersdata.org/



Only $1M? (Score:2)

by registrations_suck ( 1075251 )

Seems kinda low.

Re: (Score:2)

by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 )

This should help Joe Biden.

Re: (Score:2)

by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

> This should help Joe Biden.

This story is about a different old white man with more power than sense.

Re: (Score:2)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

He's not dangerous.

Re: (Score:2)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

> This should help Joe Biden.

You MAGAs have a double-standard, Don flubs ever more names, places, and things and you no longer care. Magic!

Re: (Score:2)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

Gates forgot the other zeros.

Re: (Score:2)

by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 )

Yes. If I'm qualified to create an effective treatment for Alzheimer's, with or without an LLM, I can certainly figure out how to get someone to pay more than a million dollars for it.

Happy Thinking Bird (Score:1)

by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 )

The LLM solution to Alzheimer's disease is just to train people to always pretend like they have a deep understanding of every conceivable topic before the dementia sets in, so that their blithe confidence after the dementia sets in fools people into thinking they don't have Alzheimer's.

Most original way to program? (Score:2)

by John.Banister ( 1291556 ) *

I guess C-x M-c M-butterfly has been taken. Why not most effective way to program?

Re: (Score:2)

by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 )

C-x M-c is undefined

Well it's just a Million (Score:2)

by Casandro ( 751346 )

Considering how much money he has/controls, that's just peanunts to him. It's like when I did a $1k price for something... probably even less.

How many mice did he just kill? (Score:2)

by blue trane ( 110704 )

Why is science so bloodthirsty?

Re: (Score:2)

by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 )

> How many mice did he kill?

Probably a lot. But not before they made Windows.

Sounds like... (Score:2)

by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 )

Gates is getting older.

This is like me... (Score:1)

by Steveftoth ( 78419 )

offering a $5 prize for alzheimer's treatments. Come on man, this is one of the most pressing issues of our time and Gates is throwing us his change he lost in the couch.

The amount of money he has made even saying the name of this prize is probably equivalent. Dude makes more money in one night of his sleep than most people will see in their lifetimes.

pointless (Score:2)

by groobly ( 6155920 )

How can AI work for Alzheimers, but not other degenerative diseases? It's a silly prize, with a silly amount of money. But good red meat for journalists.

RFK has solved this (Score:2)

by mnemotronic ( 586021 )

Injections of Ivermectin for everyone! And aluminum foil underware to ward off Bluetooth, 5G cell and IR remote control radiation.

Boondoggle all around (Score:1)

by memory_register ( 6248354 )

They will give the prize to someone, so as to not garner embarrassment, but the plain fact is that there is no LLM "capable of independent planning, reasoning, and action" even in the slightest.

Alzheimer's? Chiropractic! (Score:2)

by Dr.Bob,DC ( 2076168 ) *

It's been known for over 120 years that chiropractic treatments can eliminate life-stealing vertebral subluxations from the spine.

That translates directly into neurological health. Alzheimer's patients should seek immediate chiropractic care to help them correct their brain misalignments.

I had one patient who kept forgetting my name, near the end I was treating her in her palliative care area. But she never once forgot to pay me. That is the power of chiropractic!

Don't believe everything you hear or anything you say.