Messianism in AI times

The belief in the advent of a messiah who acts as the saviour of a group of people is common to past and present societies. Whether it is identified as a religion, a cultural trend or a concept (e.g. the notion of progress), it always relies on the bio-chemical mechanisms underpinning brain functions, namely the way humans hope for a better future. In our digital times, there is a big hope that computational algorithms will solve/answer many problems/questions of moderns societies. While this is an obvious message from many big digital organisations and leaders, one can show healthy skepticism and ask simple questions: Are the problems AI is supposed to solve essential to human (well-)beings? What percentage of world population is benefiting from AI innovations? Is AI truly upgrading humans abilities? What is the part of pure commercial arguments in speeches promoting AI? Answering these questions is not easy. To best manage this complex topic, we propose to adopt methodologies that guarantee an iterative and guard-railed thinking process supporting a relatively safe and quick implementation of AI solutions. We will focus on generative AI applications and provide concrete examples supporting drug development and manufacturing processes.