Google DeepMind – A New Golden Age of Discovery, Nov 2024

A revolution is underway in research labs worldwide, where the use of AI is rapidly expanding. Postdoctoral researchers are increasingly relying on large language models for tasks such as literature reviews and coding. Recently, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, creators of AlphaFold 2, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their use of AI in predicting protein structures. The benefits of AI in drug and material design are becoming more tangible in society. Scientists across various disciplines, from genomics to weather forecasting, are incorporating AI into their research methods. The growing necessity for AI in research is driven by the need to address complex challenges and accelerate scientific progress. While the scientific workforce has grown substantially, productivity and societal progress have slowed, highlighting the importance of AI in advancing towards critical goals such as sustainable development. Deep learning methods have proven especially effective in overcoming the scale and complexity of modern scientific research, streamlining processes that would otherwise be time-consuming and costly. The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, for example, offers instant access to millions of predicted protein structures, revolutionizing the field of structural biology.