Two faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham were recently highlighted in the prestigious Nature journal for their contributions to the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Their articles explore two distinct dimensions of AI, showcasing the breadth of expertise and innovative research within the College.
Truong-Son Hy, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, together with his Ph.D. students Viet Thanh Duy Nguyen and Phuc Pham, authored the article “Enabling Multi-Target Drug Discovery through Latent Evolutionary Optimization and Synthesis-Aware Prioritization (EVOSYNTH)." The piece introduces an advanced AI platform designed to accelerate the creation of new therapeutic compounds. Because many complex diseases—such as cancer and Alzheimer’s—involve multiple biological pathways, traditional single-target drugs are often insufficient, while combination therapies can present risks including drug interference, heightened side effects, and metabolic complications. EVOSYNTH tackles these problems by generating new molecules predicted to work effectively against several disease-related proteins at once, while also evaluating whether these molecules can be synthesized efficiently, practically, and cost‑effectively.
In another contribution to Nature, Josh May, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Philosophy, examines the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence, an area central to his scholarship within the College. Dr. May co‑authored “A roadmap for evaluating moral competence in large language models” alongside research scientists from Google DeepMind. The article outlines a structured approach for evaluating the moral reasoning abilities of large language models, with the aim of guiding the development of AI systems that more closely align with societal values.
Together, these contributions demonstrate the Colleges’ growing leadership in both the technological and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence, reinforcing UAB’s role at the forefront of cutting‑edge, interdisciplinary research.
