GV aims to help build a company that can sniff out disease, literally
Summary
After logging close to six years with Google AI, Wiltschko just became an entrepreneur-in-residence (EIR) at GV, the venture arm of the search giant, where, more specifically, he hopes to build a company that can identify disease faster based on specific odor molecules.Its a meaningful vote of confidence from GV, which has only appointed five life-science-focused EIRs in its 13-year-history, and also incubated Flatiron Health (which went on to sell to the pharma giant Roche in 2018 for $1.9 billion); the gene-editing company Verve Therapeutics, which went public last year; and Rome Therapeutics, a startup thats developing therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases by focusing on portions of DNA that have been largely overlooked by researchers, it says. Are you trying to better understand how to build neural networks based on how people process and compartmentalize information about odors?AW: Taking a step back, every time computers got a new sense, like to see or to hear, society completely changed for the better, right? And researchers found the exact material being emitted by the body: this waxy substance called sebum that is excreted by cells on your back. Whats really wonderful about joining GV as an entrepreneur in residence is being able to take the broad view and thinking about how I can have the most impact in the space in digital olfaction.Can you share more about that path? Those are the two edges of the sword there are so many opportunities, so many places to start, [but] on the other hand, you have to focus, so thats where I spend a lot of my time thinking, whats the right path specifically to chart towards our North Star, which is improving the well being and length of human life?People offer wildly varying timelines when it comes to when we might see artificial general intelligence.