A new groundbreaking AI has the ability to unlock the language of plants for the first time ever.
Researchers have been able to develop an AI model that can understand plants in a similar way that ChatGPT learns the human language.
And it could mean that we will soon be able to understand plants better than ever before.
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The artificially intelligent model, which is called Plant RNA-FM, is busy learning all of the structure, sequences and patterns of the genetic makeup of plants.
Plant researchers are working with computer scientists at the John Innes Centre at the University of Exeter, and they believe that this technology is the first of its kind.
From the centre, Professor Yiliang Ding said in a release: “Our PlantRNA-FM is just the beginning. We are working closely with Dr Li’s group to develop more advanced AI approaches to understand the hidden DNA and RNA languages in nature.
“This breakthrough opens new possibilities for understanding and potentially programming plants which could have profound implications for crop improvement and the next generation of AI-based gene design.
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“AI is increasingly instrumental in helping plant scientists tackle challenges, from feeding a global population to developing crops that can thrive in a changing climate.”
The AI understands plants through RNA, which is an important molecule that carries genetic information.
In order to unlock the language of plants, the AI has trained on 54 billion pieces of RNA.
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This has enabled it to develop a genetic alphabet of 1,124 different plant species.
Dr Haopeng Yu, who is also involved with the research, explained: “While RNA sequences may appear random to the human eye, our AI model has learned to decode the hidden patterns within them.”
According to the release, this successful collaboration was also supported by scientists from Northeast Normal University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China contributed to this work.
The release went on to say: “Just as ChatGPT can understand and respond to human language, PlantRNA-FM has learned to understand the grammar and logic of RNA sequences and structures.
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“The researchers have already used the model to make precise predictions about RNA functions and to identify specific functional RNA structural patterns across the transcriptomes.
“Their predictions have been validated by experiments which confirm that RNA structures identified by PlantRNA-FM influence the efficiency of the translation of genetic information into protein.”
So it looks like AI is the future, not just for humans, but for plants too.