Abstract: The development of new drugs usually requires a long time and huge cost with low rate of success. Artificial intelligence (AI), which is one of the hottest technologies in recent years, has been widely used in many fields. A variety of AI-based methods have been successfully applied to the discovery of drugs. This paper summarizes the applications of common machine learning and deep learning methods in the field of drug research and development, and raises the problems and challenges for artificial intelligence. With its great potential in the field of drug research and development, artificial intelligence will bring new opportunities and promising future for the development of medical and pharmaceutical sciences.