It is safe to say we have entered the era of Artificial Intelligence, with breakthroughs and new model releases happening every few weeks, AI is destined to bring a revolution. It is no doubt a globally disruptive technology that will shift the world immensely, dramatically changing our economy and lifestyle, yet what significant achievements has it had so far?

One remarkable example is Google Deepmind's Alphafold, which exemplifies the impact of AI on scientific research. The AI model predicts the structures of proteins based on their amino acid sequences, overcoming a 50 year old fundamental challenge in biology (Deepmind 2020). Deepmind’s new model, the Alphafold 3, released this year in may, has won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its protein sequence prediction ability. Furthermore, the new model is now capable of including interactions with DNA, RNA, and small molecules, offering deeper insights into molecular interactions, crucial for future drug research and discoveries.

Furthermore, we are seeing AI expand rapidly into medical diagnostics as well. Recently a new AI model that has efficiently reached clinical-expert-level accuracy in complex medical scans (McClanahan 2024) has been revealed. This is done by training artificial neural networks on large amounts of labeled data for 3D scans, this is significant as existing AI models analyze 2D scans but not 3D, since a single 3D scan can be made from up to 100 2D scans thus requiring more skill, time and attention to detail, however this model is able to overcome this wall with ease.

AI is not just an innovation; it's the dawn of a new era, set to reshape our lives and industries. With each breakthrough, the future draws closer, transforming possibilities into reality, sci-fi into non fiction.





References:
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/new-ai-model-efficiently-reaches-clinical-expert-level?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=ai-s-medical-breakthrough
https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/alphafold-a-solution-to-a-50-year-old-grand-challenge-in-biology/
https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/demis-hassabis-john-jumper-awarded-nobel-prize-in-chemistry/