Intelligence isn't the main bottleneck: Ruxandra Teslo on why smarter AI won't fix medicine's real problems

Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck

Ruxandra Teslo pushes back on the SF AI scene's belief that AGI will sweep away obstacles through hyper-persuasion. She argues medicine's real bottlenecks are clinical trials that take ~7 years and cost over $1B per drug, plus regulatory and manufacturing burdens. She cites Eroom's Law, Adaptimmune's two approved therapies and near-delisting, and the baby-KJ gene-editing case where science is ready but regulation blocks the next child. Her take: the AI crowd overrates raw intelligence and underrates institutional friction.

Why it matters: An opinion piece backed by concrete data and cases, directly countering the popular 'AGI solves everything' narrative. Hits all three HKR axes, but as a personal blog commentary rather than hard news or a product launch, it caps at the featured threshold.