AI's Nobel-worthy guess

In July 2022, this column pointed out that artificial intelligence (AI) had done at least two pieces of research for which it deserved Nobel prizes.

- DEVANGSHU DATTA

In July 2022, this column pointed out that artificial intelligence (AI) had done at least two pieces of research for which it deserved Nobel prizes. One was working out how to efficiently manage magnetic fields that enable controlled nuclear fusion. The other involved understanding the mechanics of protein folding, and making good guesses about the biochemical impact of such protein folding.

The 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has just been awarded for the latter, "for computational protein design." Two computer scientists, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper shared half the Nobel. They conceptualized the "Alphafold" algorithm, which worked out protein folding for Google subsidiary DeepMind. Chemistry professor David Baker, who uses computerized methods to create new proteins, was awarded the other half. The Alpha algorithm was also responsible for the research into "Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning".

Alpha is a self-learning algorithm. It initially became famous around 2017 for playing incredibly strong chess and Go. In both games, it went far beyond the limits of human understanding. It used the same self-learning capabilities to work through protein folding and handle magnetic fields.