The Potential Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Commercialization of Traditional Medicines in Tropical Regions

This chapter investigates artificial intelligence (AI)’s potential role in developing a comprehensive process to identify efficacious traditional and complementary medicines by marginalized communities in tropical regions for use in commercial applications. AI’s latest step forward in machine intelligence and learning has been driven by higher levels of code, investment, hardware, and widely available datasets. We outline an approach to leverage such technologies, which aims to benefit society through access to better treatments based on traditional medicines while maintaining principles of sustainability and fairness for communities at the source of the knowledge. This approach can also ensure the protection of biodiversity in ecologically sensitive environments.