What happens when the architect behind the Transformer turns his focus to RNA and molecular design? Jakob Uszkoreit, Co-Founder of Inceptive and co-author of Attention is All You Need, joins John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta, for a conversation at the intersection of AI and biology. As synthetic biology enters the age of hyperscale—powered by generative models, molecular learning, and programmable therapeutics—Jakob shares his vision for reimagining intelligence not just in machines, but in the molecules that power life. Don’t miss this rare dialogue on the future of biodesign, computation, and the growing interface between synthetic biology and deep learning.

This session explores how pharma companies approach and build effective partnerships with computational drug discovery firms. Industry experts will share insights on best practices for data sharing, strategies for navigating cultural challenges with AI-driven startups, and the role of explainable AI in fostering trust. The discussion will also cover common mistakes AI biotech companies make when approaching pharma and the considerations around using proprietary algorithms versus open-source models to advance drug discovery.

In AI development, there’s a trade-off between scale and sophistication. This session asks whether biological AI should follow the “bigger is better” mantra or focus on smarter, domain-specific architectures. One camp argues that a simple model fed with colossal datasets will outperform a clever model with limited data – echoing the view that more data beats complex algorithms. Others point out that biology’s complexity (from multi-step pathways to 3D genome organization) demands AI with built-in knowledge or special architectures to learn effectively from smaller, high-quality datasets. Through case studies in drug discovery and genomics, we will discuss if success lies in scaling up simple neural networks on big data or in engineering biologically informed AI models that excel with less data. What are the ROI trade-offs for researchers and investors in each approach?