Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind and a Nobel prizewinner for his role in developing the AlphaFold AI algorithm for predicting protein structures, made an astonishing claim on the 60 Minutes show in April. With the help of AI like AlphaFold, he said, the end of all disease is within reach, "maybe within the next decade or so". With that, the interview moved on. To those actually working on drug development and curing disease, this claim is laughable. According to medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, who has worked for decades on drug discovery, Hassabis's statements "make me want to spend some time staring silently out the window, mouthing unintelligible words to myself".

I have a confession to make. I feel like a fraud. Every few days, I receive an email from either a friend, a friend of a friend, or a random company that asks me for my insights in Artificial Intelligence. These include entrepreneurs who have just sold their startups, Stanford MBA graduates who reject half a million dollar offers, venture capitalists, even major bank executives. A couple of years earlier, I wouldn't even have the courage to approach those people, let alone dreaming about them wanting to talk to me.