DeepMind's AI Solves an Old Grand Challenge of Biology

Proteins are essential to life, supporting practically all its functions. They are large complex molecules made from chains of amino acids. What a protein does mostly depends on its unique 3D structure. Understanding what shapes proteins fold into is known as the'protein folding problem,' and has stood as a grand challenge in biology for the past 50 years. In a significant scientific advance, the artificial intelligence group DeepMind's latest version of the AI system AlphaFold has been detected to solve this grand challenge by the organisers of the biennial Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP). This breakthrough demonstrates the impact AI can have on fundamental fields that explain and shape the world.