Danyl McLauchlan Photo: supplied
Protein scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week – is a computer’s neural network conscious?
There used to be about 170,000 known protein structures, with it usually taking a PhD student three years to build up a 3D model of one. Now, in just under a year, AI system AlphaFold has (provisionally) solved the structures of around 200 million: incredibly useful information for research in drug design and clinical diagnostics.
Because AlphaFold is modelled on the human brain, there’s only so much we know about its consciousness. Is it deeply boring to have to solve hundreds of millions of protein folding problems?
Alphafold modelling programme showing complexities of coronavirus spike protein. Photo: Supplied
