In this week’s newsletter

✅ Introduction to episode 22 with Prof. Derya Unutmaz. ✅ Detailed show notes.  ✅ Modeling entire biological systems in silico. ✅ Why “Don’t die” is no longer a joke. ✅ Why Derya is on Team Hassabis. ✅ How digital twins could revolutionize diagnosis and treatment.

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How AI will help us solve aging - soon

Lately, there's been growing pushback against the idea that AI will transform geroscience in the short term. When Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis told 60 Minutes that AI could help cure every disease within 5–10 years, many in the longevity and biotech communities scoffed. Leading aging biologists called it wishful thinking - or outright fantasy.

They argue that we still lack crucial biological data to train AI models, and that experiments and clinical trials move too slowly to change the timeline.

Our guest in this episode of LEVITY, Professor Derya Unutmaz, knows these objections well. But he’s firmly on Team Hassabis.

In fact, Unutmaz goes even further. He says we won’t just cure diseases - we'll solve aging itself within the next 20 years.

And best of all, he offers a surprisingly detailed, concrete explanation of how it will happen: building virtual cells, modeling entire biological systems in silico, and dramatically accelerating drug discovery - powered by next-generation AI reasoning engines.

🧬 In this wide-ranging conversation, we also cover:

✅ Why biological complexity is no longer an unsolvable barrier.

✅ How digital twins could revolutionize diagnosis and treatment.

✅ Why clinical trials as we know them may soon collapse.

✅ The accelerating timeline toward longevity escape velocity.

✅ How reasoning AIs (like GPT-4o, o1, DeepSeek) are changing scientific research.

✅ Whether AI creativity challenges the idea that only biological minds can create.

✅ Why AI will force a new culture of leisure, curiosity, and human flourishing.

✅ The existential stress that will come as AI outperforms human expertise.

✅ Why “Don’t die” is no longer a joke — it's real advice.

🎙️ Hosted - as always - by me, Peter Ottsjö (tech journalist and author of Evigt Ung), and Dr. Patrick Linden (philosopher and author of The Case Against Death).

You can watch the episode below or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other places, like PocketCasts. Please follow, like and subscribe! 🙏🏼 This will boost our chances of reaching a bigger audience.

A detailed overview of the episode

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