Using AI to Map the Undiscovered World of Bioactive Compounds in Plants

The plant world has been a ready source of bioactive compounds that can improve human health. There are more than 10 million natural compounds in the plant world, but less than 0.1 percent of these compounds have been explored. Brightseed’s Forager is an artificial intelligence discovery platform that is being used to map millions of bioactive natural compounds to identify ones with potential to address human health needs. We spoke to Jim Flatt, co-founder and CEO of Brightseed, about the company’s discovery platform, its business model, and why it’s pushing beyond nutrition and supplement companies to forge partnerships with drug developers.