He Won the Nobel Prize for Protein Design. Now He Uses AI to Create Molecules Not Found in Nature

David Baker spoke with WIRED en Español about where biological design is headed next and the great potential and risks of taking biology outside the bounds of the natural world. David Baker, a pioneer of protein design, is using AI to go where nature hasn't. The natural world as we know it represents only a fraction of what might exist. Based on this idea, AI BioDesign was born: a scientific project that combines artificial intelligence and large-scale laboratory experiments to design and test new molecules and biological functions that are not found in nature but are physically and chemically possible. In doing so, the researchers are aiming to create databases, models, and tools that could serve as "seeds" for developing the medicines and technologies of the future.