The Other AI Stuff
We are (mostly) all excited about the impact of GenAI and how fast that space is evolving, and rightly so.
When I explain AI to business folks in business terms, I bucketize AI into six different groups. GenAI is one. It is easy to miss just how amazing progress there is in the 'other' AI. Which will also have huge positive knock on effects for Gen AI.
The picture above (from the smart folks at Quanta Magazine) will explain why three-dimensional structures of proteins are important. It will take you about 60 seconds.
Protein function is typically based on its shape/structure, which is created by a folding/construction process. There are literally hundreds of millions of different shapes. Proteins do important stuff like moving oxygen in the blood, managing appetite and even mood, and, of course, making antibodies.
AlphaFold3 is a great example of massive progress in 'the other AI stuff'.
AlphaFold3 can predict protein structures often 500 times faster than the old process, with higher accuracy, and can do thousands in parallel. So, for example, that is a 3000 X step forward.
3000 X is a garden snail versus Hamilton in his F1 car at top speed or the population of Canberra, Australia, versus all of China. We know technology always improves over time. But it hasn't jumped by that scale until recently. GenAI is another clear example; Ocient for scale data analytics is another.
This impacts the fields of drug discovery and development, understanding disease mechanisms, enzyme engineering (think biofuels), and vaccine development.
AlphaFold 3 is not just a small step forward; it is a monumental leap in our ability to understand and manipulate biological systems. Its ability to predict protein structures quickly and accurately has transformative potential across various fields, making previously time-consuming and resource-intensive processes much more efficient and accessible. This breakthrough further empowers researchers to tackle complex biological questions and develop new treatments, products, and technologies at an unprecedented pace.
This is Just the Beginning
Progress in Science and Technology (S&T) is not a smooth climbing line. It really isn't even a single line. Historically, it has been a step-like progress, where new opportunities can only be seen when you reach a new plateau, and then you get a new wave of upward progress.
As amazing as things like AlphaFold, CRISPR CAS9, and GenAI are, they are just the beginning of a new platform. Advances in various AI areas will supercharge many areas in S&T, while cross-disciplinary work is blossoming. This is important, two examples:
you reading this, at a cellular level, are an amalgam of mechanics, physics, chemistry and biology. How all of that works is a combinatorial problem.
scaling amazing breakthroughs from biologics to synthetic bio to 'old-school' pharma is an architecture/design and engineering problem as much as anything else.
It is hard not to be optimistic about this massive creative destruction cycle heading our way. The creative side will be amazing and beneficial. The destructive side usually gets less attention, which is to our peril. Very few believe they will be on teh destruction side of that cycle until it is too late.
