ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, HUMAN REPRODUCTION, AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL DIVIDE The main difference with AI in the EU, China, Japan, Israel and throughout the Middle East is that the trials and innovation pre-date the press releases and lauded funding rounds, to the point that these countries many even have new medically relevant technologies to sell before they tell the world everything about them and their plans. The USA’s Cornell University has recently launched a number of Centers for AI and AI groups, and is assembling the USA and partners’ thought leaders and self-appointed thought leaders in the AI space. We can contrast the elusiveness of “fully automated robotic IVF labs” with Argentine billionaire Martin Varsavsky’s company Overture, with lead scientist, Santiago Munné Overture is willing to show the world video evidence of their team’s first USA trials of robotic ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection), when the sperm is literally injected into the egg, and both the promise that the robotic technology holds, as well as the work it still needs to surpass manual ICSI. Since we are in the infancy of AI-meets-human-reproduction – and both are scarcely regulated globally - the “fully automated” and “AI-implemented” spectrums are as open to interpretation and continual defining as the autism and dementia spectrums. The latest round of press releases again touts “50 fully automated labs,” while this is sheer impossibility and we still do not know what “fully automated” even means. However, years later, and after many false promises, massive layoffs, and a just-appointed third CEO, TMRW Life Sciences does reportedly have software that is being used in IVF labs. TMRW even put out press releases in Mandarin and other languages touting its fully robotic laboratory customers (would-be-robotic-IVF-clinic customers) throughout the United States. Few realized that TMRW was always the USA marketing arm of Brooks Life Sciences (now Azenta Life Sciences) attempts to create a fully automated robot to retrieve gametes from cryotanks via robots and RFID, therefore eliminating the human element. The company originally debuted a movie-trailer quality teaser (2019) of what it set out to do. In the USA and Canada, the tendency to put the cart before the horse is best evidenced in the media machine and press releases touting “smart money” funding rounds.įor almost 5 years, TMRW Life Sciences has promised the world fully robotic and automated IVF labs. In the EU and neighboring countries, we see large IVF clinics groups, such as IVIRMA Global (now KKR Private Equity owned) collaborating on AI work across the human embryology field, with their vast laboratory networks and partner hospitals and academic institutions across the world. Nowhere is this stark contrast more apparent than with Artificial Intelligence and Third-Party Reproduction and the differences in the IVF and Life Sciences fields. Whereas, in the European Union, the trend is to collaborate and put social welfare and results before publicity. IVI-RMA Middle East was launched in 2016.What happens in North America when certain science, medicine and technology is not regulated, or is scarcely regulated, is that most entrepreneurs rush to innovate and say they are at the forefront of whatever the next big thing is. This transaction exemplifies Gulf Capital’s tried and tested strategy of acquiring controlling stakes in market leading companies in high growth sectors.” Dr Karim El Solh, CEO of Gulf Capital, told the media report, “We are thrilled to back the strongest management and medical team within the IVF sector regionally. The fertility sector in the GCC is predicted to grow at more than 15 percent CAGR annually over the next five years. Increased awareness and technological advancements are contributing factors to the fertility sector’s growth in the GCC. The firm has identified major scope in the fertility sub-sector which will become its prime focus in the coming years. Gulf Capital is speeding up efforts in investments in the healthcare sector. The expansion plan will create a new brand identity for IVI-RMA Middle East this year, involving cutting-edge genetic labs in Abu Dhabi. It aims to increase the number of fertility clinics by threefold, the media report said. The group is targeting regional expansion and to Asia and Europe over the next three years. The acquisition will have Gulf Capital own a 100 percent stake in the IVI-RMA’s operations. The investment in the provider marks Gulf Capital’s largest equity investment to date. IVI-RMA Middle East is the fastest growing IVF service provider in the GCC. ![]() IVI-RMA is the world’s largest assisted reproduction group. Alternative asset management firm Gulf Capital has acquired IVI-RMA for $100 million, the local media reported.
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