When the list of medical science heroes — Edward Jenner, Alexander Fleming, Joseph Lister — is updated to include those from the 21st century, one entry could be a computer program with no name.

At least, that’s the suggestion from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who say they have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program to save the world from the perils of antimicrobial resistance.

And they have already proclaimed success with the drug Halicin — which they named after the robot HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Writing in the journal Cell, they say they trained AI on 2335 chemicals known to inhibit growth of E. coli antibiotics, then let it loose on 6111 chemicals currently being investigated in clinical trials.