Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Tagprotein folding

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AlphaFold Accuracy Visualization on a Tablet Cutting-Edge Biochemical Analysis

AI in Biology: What Difference Did the Rise of the Machines Make?

AI works very well for proteins that lock into a single configuration, as many do. But intrinsically disordered ones don’t play by those rules
The resulting problems aren’t a temporary bug — they’re a basic limitation of training a machine learning model on a dataset where proteins always fold neatly. Read More ›
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the elaborate process of protein folding, essential for proper function within living organisms

AI in Biology: AI Meets Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Protein folding — the process by which a protein arrives at its functional shape — is one of the most complex unsolved problems in biology
The mystery of protein folding remains unsolved because, as is so often the case with AI narratives, the reality is much more complicated than the hype. Read More ›
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Chain of amino acid or biomolecules called protein - 3d illustration

#1 Smash Hit in AI 2020: AI Cracks Protein Folding!

The reason it became possible, of course, is many years of human creativity

Our Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks is back with the second instalment of 2020 smash hits in AI—and now, the #1 Smash Hit! Readers may recall that we offered a fun series during the holidays about the oopses and ums and ers in the discipline (typically hyped by uncritical sources). This time, Dr. Marks talks with Jonathan Bartlett and Eric Holloway about AI programs that can beat humans at understanding the complexities of protein folding, the immensely complex ways that proteins in our bodies actually work. Robert J. Marks: AI has cracked a problem that stumped biologists for 50 years. And it’s a huge deal. Jonathan and Eric, elaborate on this a little bit. Jonathan Bartlett: Well, protein Read More ›

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Abstract broken glass into pieces. Wall of glass shatters into small pieces. Place for your banner, advertisement. Explosion caused the destruction of glass. 3d illustration

AI Smash Hits 2020 Part II

An ultimate test of a successful technology is whether it has been reduced to practice. Has it made a financial impact on the market? Has it been adopted by the very picky US military? Has it changed lives? We’re going to count down the AI Smash Hits: the top ten AI success stories for 2020. Join Dr. Robert J. Marks as he Read More ›

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Chain of amino acid or biomolecules called protein - 3d illustration

If AlphaFold Is a Product of Design, Maybe Our Bodies Are Too

The deeper we go into science, the more important our unique human contributions become

Recently, we’ve been looking at tech philosopher George Gilder’s new Gaming AI about what AI can—and can’t—do for us. It can’t do our thinking for us but it can do many jobs we don’t even try because no human being has enough time or patience to motor through all the calculations. Which brings us to the massive complexity of the proteins that carry out our genetic instructions—better knowledge of which would help us battle many diseases. Gilder notes that when DeepMind’s AlphaGo beat humans at the board game Go in 2016, it wasn’t just for the fun of winning a game. DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis (pictured in 2018) is more interested in real-life uses such as medical research (p. 11). Read More ›

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Professional Japanese Development Engineer is Testing an Artificial Intelligence Interface by Playing Chess with a Futuristic Robotic Arm. They are in a High Tech Modern Research Laboratory.

George Gilder on Gaming AI

AI is good at winning games. But how does this (and other) accomplishments translate to applications in the real world? George Gilder and Robert J. Marks discuss artificial intelligence, games, and George Gilder’s new book Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs (which you can get for free here). Show Notes Additional Resources