The UK Government is making a £100m ($121.14m) investment to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to develop new, transformational therapies for previously incurable ailments.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission, a new initiative in life sciences and healthcare. 

The investment will be used in areas where rapid AI deployment has the potential to create transformational breakthroughs. 

The mission will leverage the UK's secure health data using AI to address eight tasks, including developing cancer therapies and dementia treatment.

The project will detect individuals at risk of ailments such as dementia and related conditions and they will join trials for developing new therapies.

This approach will collect crucial data on the working mechanisms of such therapies. 

The latest grant will facilitate government investment in areas with increased clinical requirements in 2024 to 2025. 

The government also intends to deploy AI in clinical settings to enhance health outcomes. 

By establishing a robust data infrastructure, it plans to enhance mental health research in the next five years.

Sunak stated: “AI can help us solve some of the greatest social challenges of our time. AI could help find novel dementia treatments or develop vaccines for cancer.

“That’s why today we’re investing a further £100m to accelerate the use of AI on the most transformational breakthroughs in treatments for previously incurable diseases.”