Quote:
Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $3bn (£2.3bn) to fund medical research over the next decade.
At a press conference in San Francisco, they said their ultimate goal was to "cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century".
The funds will be distributed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which they created in December 2015.
Tech leaders are increasingly turning their attention to health.
Earlier in the week, Microsoft said it intended to "solve" cancer by using artificial intelligence tools.
Google's DeepMind unit is working with the NHS to find a way to use computers to more accurately diagnose diseases.
And IBM and MIT announced a tie-up earlier this week to develop AI-based systems that could help clinicians improve the care of elderly and disabled patients.
Even so, the Chan Zuckerberg plan is marked by its ambition.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37435425
The generosity is admirable but curing or preventing disease is simply going to create or exacerbate other problems isn't it? Unless a great deal more is done, this won't prevent deaths due to poverty, famine, overpopulation, war etc. so if we're going down this route surely we need to think it through first. On a global level it will surely result in population growth with even more mouths to feed and yet more demand for scarce resources - the very problems which are, in many cases, already fuelling conflict and mass migration around the world.
