A new golden age of discovery – Seizing the AI for Science opportunity
A quiet revolution is brewing in labs around the world, where scientists’ use of AI is growing exponentially. One in three postdocs now use large language models to help carry out literature reviews, coding, and editing. In October, the creators of our AlphaFold 2 system, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper became Nobel Laureates in Chemistry for using AI to predict the structure of proteins, alongside the scientist David Baker, for his work to design new proteins. Society will soon start to feel these benefits more directly, with drugs and materials designed with the help of AI currently making their way through development.
In this essay, we take a tour of how AI is transforming scientific disciplines from genomics to computer science to weather forecasting. Some scientists are training their own AI models, while others are fine-tuning existing AI models, or using these models’ predictions to accelerate their research. Scientists are using AI as a scientific instrument to help tackle important problems, such as designing proteins that bind more tightly to disease targets, but are also gradually transforming how science itself is practised.
Tool AI > Uncontrollable AGI
Maggie Munro, Future of Life Institute
Today’s newsletter is an 11-minute read. Some of what we cover this month:
? Why we should build Tool AI, not artificial general intelligence
?️ A glimpse into a future shaped by superintelligence
? Beta testing opportunity!
?? Looking at the role of AI and deepfakes in the U.S. election
State of AI Report 2024 Summary
Michael Spencer< AI Supremacy
We might be stuck in 2023 still in some ways halfway between chatbots and AI agents, and whatever else comes next. Another deep learning plateau or winter is entirely possible. If a lot of the hype was manufactured that doesn’t mean AI and exponential tech won’t be impactful, it just means you cannot fully trust reports from VC firms, social media and PR based channels. A lot of influencers, writers and evangelists become sucked into all of that. It becomes their job to be professional techno-optimists and cherry pick academic papers and ideas that support their growing following.
