Google DeepMind Unveils Next Generation of Drug Discovery AI Model

Google DeepMind logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Google DeepMind logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Google DeepMind Unveils Next Generation of Drug Discovery AI Model

Google DeepMind logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Google DeepMind logo is seen near computer motherboard in this illustration taken January 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

Google Deepmind has unveiled the third major version of its "AlphaFold" artificial intelligence model, designed to help scientists design drugs and target disease more effectively.
In 2020, the company made a significant advance in molecular biology by using AI to successfully predict the behavior of microscopic proteins.
With the latest incarnation of AlphaFold, researchers at DeepMind and sister company Isomorphic Labs – both overseen by cofounder Demis Hassabis – have mapped the behavior for all of life's molecules, including human DNA.
The interactions of proteins - from enzymes crucial to the human metabolism, to the antibodies that fight infectious diseases - with other molecules is key to drug discovery and development.
DeepMind said the findings, published in research journal Nature on Wednesday, would reduce the time and money needed to develop potentially life-changing treatments.
“With these new capabilities, we can design a molecule that will bind to a specific place on a protein, and we can predict how strongly it will bind,” Hassabis said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
“It's a critical step if you want to design drugs and compounds that will help with disease.”
The company also announced the release of the “AlphaFold server”, a free online tool that scientists can use to test their hypotheses before running real-world tests.
Since 2021, AlphaFold’s predictions have been freely accessible to non-commercial researchers, as part of a database containing more than 200 million protein structures, and has been cited thousands of times in others’ work.
DeepMind said the new server required less computing knowledge, allowing researchers to run tests with just a few clicks of a button.
John Jumper, a senior research scientist at DeepMind, said: “It’s going to be really important how much easier the AlphaFold server makes it for biologists – who are experts in biology, not computer science – to test larger, more complex cases."
Dr Nicole Wheeler, an expert in microbiology at the University of Birmingham, said AlphaFold 3 could significantly speed up the drug discovery pipeline, as "physically producing and testing biological designs is a big bottleneck in biotechnology at the moment".



Musk Slams Trump-backed AI Mega Project

 Elon Musk, right, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP)
Elon Musk, right, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP)
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Musk Slams Trump-backed AI Mega Project

 Elon Musk, right, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP)
Elon Musk, right, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP)

Elon Musk on Wednesday cast doubt on a $500 billion AI project announced by US President Donald Trump, saying the money promised for the investment actually wasn't there.

The comments were a rare instance of a split between the world's richest man and Trump, with Musk playing a key role in the newly installed administration after spending $270 million on the election campaign.

In his first full day in the White House, Trump on Tuesday announced a major investment to build infrastructure for artificial intelligence led by Japanese giant SoftBank and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

Trump said the venture, called Stargate, "will invest $500 billion, at least, in AI infrastructure in the United States."

But in a post on his social media platform X, Musk said the main investors "don't actually have the money."

"SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority," Musk added in a subsequent post.

Musk's sideswipe could be particularly targeted at OpenAI, the world's leading AI startup that Musk helped found, before leaving in 2018.

The Tesla boss and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who was present at the White House on Tuesday, have been mired in a serious feud, with Musk opening repeated lawsuits against the company behind ChatGPT.

OpenAI is one of the world's highest valued startups, but loses money on the high costs of turning out its expensive technology.

According to the Wall Street Journal, cloud giant Oracle, which is also involved, has about $11 billion in cash and securities. SoftBank has roughly $30 billion of cash on hand.

The Stargate project is committed to investing an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the project.