Do robots dream of electric drugs? An AI that ‘hallucinates’ new proteins is about to change the world
I was excited when it was announced at the end of 2020 that Alphafold had used DeepMind’s AI to solve the 50-year-old protein folding problem. Now the applications of that breakthrough are starting to emerge and according to this article in Nature they are remarkable. From better drugs to synthetic enzymes that eat plastic, whole new fields with powerful real-world applications are opening up in molecular biology.
Alongside mRNA vaccines and CRISPR gene-editing, and all the other applications of AI that are on the way, it’s a reminder of what an exciting time we are living through. It’s also a sign of the strength of British innovation. DeepMind remains London-based, after being acquired by Google in 2014.