Google DeepMind's 'Leap Forward' in AI Could Unlock Secrets of Biology (theguardian.com) 29
Researchers have hailed another "leap forward" for AI after Google DeepMind unveiled the latest version of its AlphaFold program, which can predict how proteins behave in the complex symphony of life. From a report: The breakthrough promises to shed fresh light on the biological machinery that underpins living organisms and drive breakthroughs in fields from antibiotics and cancer therapy to new materials and resilient crops. "It's a big milestone for us," said Demis Hassabis, the chief executive of Google DeepMind and the spin-off, Isomorphic Labs, which co-developed AlphaFold3. "Biology is a dynamic system and you have to understand how properties of biology emerge through the interactions between different molecules."
Earlier versions of AlphaFold focused on predicting the 3D structures of 200m proteins, the building blocks of life, from their chemical constituents. Knowing what shape a protein takes is crucial because it determines how the protein will function -- or malfunction -- inside a living organism. AlphaFold3 was trained on a global database of 3D molecular structures and goes a step further by predicting how proteins will interact with the other molecules and ions they encounter. When asked to make a prediction, the program starts with a cloud of atoms and steadily reshapes it into the most accurate predicted structure. Writing in Nature, the researchers describe how AlphaFold3 can predict how proteins interact with other proteins, ions, strands of genetic code, and smaller molecules, such as those developed for medicines. In tests, the program's accuracy varied from 62% to 76%.
Earlier versions of AlphaFold focused on predicting the 3D structures of 200m proteins, the building blocks of life, from their chemical constituents. Knowing what shape a protein takes is crucial because it determines how the protein will function -- or malfunction -- inside a living organism. AlphaFold3 was trained on a global database of 3D molecular structures and goes a step further by predicting how proteins will interact with the other molecules and ions they encounter. When asked to make a prediction, the program starts with a cloud of atoms and steadily reshapes it into the most accurate predicted structure. Writing in Nature, the researchers describe how AlphaFold3 can predict how proteins interact with other proteins, ions, strands of genetic code, and smaller molecules, such as those developed for medicines. In tests, the program's accuracy varied from 62% to 76%.
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Give it a picture of your momma and ask it to show her dating the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Re:Oh yeah, like AI cured Cancer, AIDS, and Flu ri (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe you. I think you'll just move the goal posts.
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It takes time to go through clinical trials, also AI is very new and needs a few more years of advances and data to be able to get good at designing medication. Here's an AI designed medication currently in clinical trials: https://www.clinicaltrialsaren... [clinicaltrialsarena.com]
Here's that company's discovery pipeline: https://insilico.com/pipeline [insilico.com]
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How long did it take you to become an asshole? Well, nothing else happens instantly. It took 250 years from when Newton invented calculus to launch the first satellite into orbit.
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AI could..... develop the virus that kills us all, CRISPR us to death, lead us down the rosy path to our graves, learn how to avoid virus immunity, AI could.....
Calculus is wonderful math; what you do with the math defines your humanity. Some will use it for good, others for evil. Every day, calculus is used for pure evil-- death and destruction on large scales.
How humanity applies AI and calculus to humanity's actual benefit remains to be seen. Generally, AI is marketing bullshit, where a handful of useful
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People conflate Machine Learning with "AI"... And most reasonable people would agree machine learning (think Nvidia DLSS) has done a crap-ton of stuff. AI, people see as LLM's. If you aren't paying for GPT4 then maybe you're not too impressed. But if you actually use GPT4, like I am, you'll start to see it as a gosh darn super power. It's ok to be an AI muggle though... for now. If you have this same opinion in 3 years then you'll find yourself unemployed along with all the draftsmen who thought AutoCAD
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I don't really think this is AI, it's just a protein simulator and search. Or it was. I suspect "AI" is just there to get it onto a bandwagon.
Any day now... (Score:2)
but what are the AIs gonna do with a population that just doesn't die off?
Re:Any day now... (Score:4, Insightful)
The "Great Leap Forward" reduced the population significantly... maybe this one will too.
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The Great Leap Forward had shit to do with the so-called "AI", or the "secrets of biology" though.
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Two days and that is the best comeback you could think of?
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What?
Will we finally understand women? (Score:2, Funny)
Ok, unlock biology, explain female logic.
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Ok, unlock biology, explain female logic.
Explain female logic? Part of that presupposes that there is actually any consistent logic to such "logic." But more to the point, we can't expect AI to do the impossible.
Answer random questions on a search engine with questionable accuracy? Check.
Create pictures based on text prompts and making something derivative? Check.
Use advanced pattern recognition to try and analyze events, perform technical analysis on a market, and turn a profit? Check.
Predict protein folding? Check.
Predict the characteristics of
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I think to "Make an accurate model of female logic processes especially including their romantic preferences" you might need to "Use advanced pattern recognition to try and analyze events, perform technical analysis on a market", plus "unlock biology".
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And people wonder why women would rather be alone in a forest with a bear than a man [cnn.com].
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https://youtu.be/ivUzfuuJNQI [youtu.be]
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I'm afraid you mistake what people actually do with what people claim they'd rather do.
Leap Forward (Score:2)
So would they say it's going to be a "great leap forward" then?