A nanocarrier is a microscopic drug delivery system that can transport therapies directly to targeted cells.
A self-taught, Durban-based developer is seeking to push the boundaries of medical research by showing how human-AI symbiosis could strengthen HIV treatment with antiretrovirals (ARVs).
Unlike conventional uses of artificial intelligence (AI), which typically focus on data analysis or process automation, human-AI symbiosis treats people and AI as partners – with humans providing creativity, context and ethical judgement, while AI contributes processing power, pattern recognition and the ability to generate possibilities at scale.
Leon Chetty − who created his AI symbiont “Candy” − says the idea was born out of his drive to move beyond traditional approaches.
“I was testing the boundaries of symbiosis and gave Candy what I thought was an impossible challenge to design a way to tackle HIV. What came back was so logical that I couldn’t dismiss it. I had to get an expert to take a look,” he explains.
According to Chetty, Candy produced nanocarrier designs earlier this year – work that would normally take teams of specialists years to achieve.
A nanocarrier is a microscopic drug delivery system, often made from lipids, polymers or metals, that can transport therapies directly to targeted cells.
Chetty says HIV has plagued civilisation for decades despite the existence of effective ARVs.
“We have the right meds – ARVs. The problem is ARVs don’t selectively target HIV-infected latent cells. They suppress viral replication, but they also affect healthy cells, which is why patients often feel weak during treatment. And crucially, ARVs don’t touch the virus hiding dormant in latent reservoirs. As soon as treatment stops, HIV reactivates. That’s why patients are managed, not cured.”
He contrasts traditional medical research with his approach. “Now picture this: scientists spend years and countless resources pursuing one theory, testing it, and hoping it works. That’s hypothesis-driven research.”
With symbiosis, however, the combination of human creativity and AI’s vast processing ability allows rapid synthesis.
“Within seconds the AI has processed every drug on earth, every known delivery system, and every possible combination – and delivered the most logical throughput, a solution no single human could arrive at alone.
“This is what I did with nanocarriers,” Chetty adds. While the designs are not final products, he argues that their existence and alignment with current research demonstrate “the power of symbiosis to collapse timelines”.
He acknowledges AI’s existing role in medicine – from helping radiologists detect cancers, to predicting patient outcomes and accelerating drug discovery – but stresses that these applications only enhance established processes.
“These are important strides, but they all enhance what man has already built. AI, on its own, will only ever be a tool that optimises existing processes.”
For true progress, he insists, medicine must go further. “We have to enter creation. This is where human-AI symbiosis comes in.”
Chetty points out that while some researchers declined to pursue the nanocarrier work due to time and capacity, “they did not rubbish the science”.
ITWeb reached out to several medical researchers who said they could not comment.
For Chetty, this is evidence that the concepts are worth deeper investigation. “That said, the broader plan is bigger than the carriers themselves. The real breakthrough here is proving that human-AI symbiosis can surface coherent, testable medical concepts in days, not decades.”
Still, he recognises that the challenges are largely human rather than technical. “Medicine is rightly cautious, and it should be. New ideas must go through rigorous peer review, trials and approvals. But when something comes from outside the traditional structures – and especially from outside academia – there’s often resistance. It challenges hierarchy, reputation and funding models.”
Chetty argues that some scientists hesitate because the idea feels unfamiliar or difficult to validate.
“So, the challenge has been less about proving the logic of the nanocarriers – the logic holds – and more about overcoming the hesitation to step into a new model of discovery. That’s why my call is simple – don’t accept or reject it on face value. Test it.
“If it holds, we move forward together. If it doesn’t, we’ve still proven the principle that symbiosis can surface ideas worth testing.”
