Using AI to Accelerate Scientific Discovery
Published 2022-07-13
DeepMind has been in the vanguard of many of these big breakthroughs, pioneering the development of self-learning systems like AlphaGo, the first program to beat the world champion at the complex game of Go. Games have proven to be a great training ground for developing and testing AI algorithms, but the aim at DeepMind has always been to build general learning systems ultimately capable of solving important problems in the real world. I believe we are on the cusp of an exciting new era in science with AI poised to be a powerful tool for accelerating scientific discovery itself. We recently demonstrated this potential with our AlphaFold system, a solution to the 50-year grand challenge of protein structure prediction, culminating in the release of the most accurate and complete picture of the human proteome.
About Demis Hassabis:
Demis Hassabis is the Founder and CEO of DeepMind, the world’s leading AI research company, and now an independent subsidiary of Alphabet. Founded in 2010, DeepMind has been at the forefront of the field ever since, producing landmark research breakthroughs. A chess and programming child prodigy, Demis coded the classic AI simulation game Theme Park aged 17. After graduating from Cambridge University in computer science with a double first, he founded pioneering videogames company Elixir Studios, and completed a PhD in cognitive neuroscience at UCL investigating memory and imagination processes. His work has been cited over 70,000 times and has featured in Science’s top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year on four separate occasions. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2017 he featured in the Time 100 list of most influential people, and in 2018 he was awarded a CBE.
About The Obert C. Tanner Lectures on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values:
The Tanner Lectures were established by the American scholar, industrialist, and philanthropist, Obert Clark Tanner. In creating the lectureships, Professor Tanner said: 'I hope these lectures will contribute to the intellectual and moral life of mankind. I see them simply as a search for a better understanding of human behaviour and human values. This understanding may be pursued for its own intrinsic worth, but it may also eventually have practical consequences for the quality of personal and social life.'
All Comments (21)
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Absolutely fantastic talk from Demis! Inspiring.
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It's insane how many once in a life-time work Demis has led and worked on.
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Hassabis uses the term Rennaisance very intentionally. We may be at the cusp of a truly revolutionary change in society and culture, much like the cultural Rennaisance in the 15th century, but now on a larger scope and scale. What a time to be alive!
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My God, that was most interesting talk I’ve ever heard. And I listen to a lot of talks but this one was way beyond good! Well done Oxford and Demis for putting this talk together.
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Great presentation, the potentials are enormous I can only imagine what the next 30 years will look like. He took a lot of shots at Elon Musk on the methodology of testing.
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I am so excited to see what DeepMind does next. Soon we will have all of protein folding completed. What next?
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Talk starts at 4:25
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For the past few years I simply cannot wait for the AI that discovers new physics, such as possibly joining quantum mechanics into general relativity. I think we get a hint of it when Demis says that AlphaGo invented a new style of play (ie: when it did that thing in column 5 in the middle of the board). I see an analogy here where an AI will re-discover everything we did up to a certain point, and then it may diverge into some new area that is fundamental to physics beyond our current level.
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This is just delicious. What a time to be alive.
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Demis certainly seems like a real bright fella. I like his answers, the guy takes time to address the questions deeply and meaningfully, taking consideration of loaded questions and their assumptions.
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REAL AI CANNOT BE CONTROLLED
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The question about philosophy was excellent. AI can certainly contribute. Just start from analyzing texts, law documents, and more.
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Demis understood that any examples he might give about the risks of social media could be used against him as accusations of bias - .e.g he could have cited Brexit or Trump but he didn't. It shows the deftness of his mind that he anticipated this, and gave a more general answer.
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They should give this guy a nobel prize already
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Crazy how the journalists were more interested in ethics and security than the positive sides like curing cancer, alzheimers and reversing human aging.
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so inspirational!!
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This was an amazing talk. A lot more interesting than i thought it was going to be.
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Cool. Would like to see this in debate format! You know...
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I'm invigorated by the depth and breadth of this piece. A book with congruent topics inspired new ideas in me. "Game Theory and the Pursuit of Algorithmic Fairness" by Jack Frostwell
