Epic win

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/deepmind-unlocks-the-protein-secrets-of-life-z3q6z0mbj

UK AI company with the most significant success in genomics since they mapped the human genome.

Can anyone with a Times sub please cutnpaste the text of that ^ ?

It's a puff piece.

BBC Inside Science: A life-changing database http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y0qp
Talks about it.

It's a puff piece.

Makes sense

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jul/22/ai-firm-deepmind-puts-database-building-blocks-life-human-protein-structure-free-online

Non sub walled piece.👍

@itsbruce - do you mean the specific article or the news event in general?

That article, although it's not the only one.

The British artificial intelligence pioneer, 44, revealed an AI system that had solved one of biology’s great challenges — how to predict rapidly the 3D structures of proteins, an advance that promises to open a new era of discovery and drug development.

No, it bloody well hasn't solved that problem and no respectable science correspondent (sadly, most are not respectable) should take that claim at face value. Sadly, both the Times and the Guardian blindly accept DeepMind's shameless hype of (checks notes) their own commercial product.

AlphaFold is a significant advance, but it hasn't solved the problem. It isn't hard to find informed experts in the field who give a more measured assessment. Try this, for example. That one is particularly good because it not only salutes the scale of the advance but also goes into detail about why anybody should be suspicious of DeepMind's claims given their commercial interests, the obstacles to reproducing their methods and their actual behaviour (e.g. all the patents they've now applied for).

Sometimes bad reporting of science is entirely down to the naivety of poorly-educated reporters, sometimes self-interested distortion by the researchers (or their employers), sometimes both. In this case, it's both. Hassabis absolutely knows the definition of "decidable" in computing/logic, so he knows he's telling porkies when he says the problem is solved. It isn't even solved for most practical purposes (nowhere near), let alone definitively.

You have previous on here for getting a hard-on for AI without actually understanding it. Don't be surprised when this irritates people who have some knowledge either of the computing AI field or the specific area where the AI/ML you're uncritically hyping is being applied. It's not because they're Luddites, it's because they care.

You have previous on here for getting a hard-on for AI without actually understanding it. Don't be surprised when this irritates people who have some knowledge either of the computing field or the specific area where the AI/ML you're uncritically hyping is being applied. It's not because they're Luddites, it's because they care.

Have I? I don’t recall. It’s not my field of expertise, and given how far outside of most people’s fields of expertise it is I’d hope 1) media did a better job covering it critically, and 2) experts/critics did a better job of voicing their concerns. I uncritically repeated what multiple MSM said, you got me there, but to be irritated at me for being interested in learning more (hence posting it here, on a bicycle forum, for discussion) and not doing it well enough for you (I presume an expert), seems harsh.

I think we can all agree that I post here too much anyway. Shrug* I’ll tone it down.

For what its worth I'm working for a machine learning company helping them write a tech design for a new neural network product at the moment and I've been impressed at how patient they are with people who don't understand the tech and/or get roped in by the hype. I do suspect it's mostly bicycle forum machine learning experts who are getting grumpy about it.

I think we can all agree that I post here too much anyway.

Ech, don't listen to anybody who tells you that. Some of the worst gatekeepers on this site still write dozens of posts here ever day despite having moved to whole other continents.

A lot of people that understand it don't understand it, other than at a high level - Some aspects of machine learning are moving at a bonkers rate.

Having had to deal with a "founder" who answered my questions about the lack of a baseline with "I don't think you can measure this objectively" and had to watch a potentially promising idea tank on the basis of such ignorance, along with the nasty human cost, I'm going to keep being grumpy about it.

Uncritical hype of tech and tech snake-oil salesmen is actually a serious social problem right now, in case you hadn't noticed. The snake-oil salesman in question here has some particularly dodgy form.

And before you start, Dan, at work I dealt with it very patiently and responsibly, unlike the founders, for the sake of a whole team and at the risk of my job. But this is a cycling forum.

Some aspects of machine learning are moving at a bonkers rate.

@TW All the more reason for skepticism to be the default response.

1. What can independent sources tell me?
   
2. What is this person trying to sell me?
   
3. If this tech is valid, how can it be abused?
   
   

These should be the first questions that come to mind.

@TW All the more reason for skepticism to be the default response.

I disagree - I just ask GPT3 and the truth is revealed. Like a magic 8-ball.

What did GPT3 tell you about Github Copilot? Much of the response from the global development community has been negative in a fairly neanderthal reactionary way, but I look at it and think "Oh, great: a whole new class of supply chain attacks".

Very true.

Some of the worst gatekeepers on this site still write dozens of posts here ever day despite having moved to whole other continents.

hippy still writes dozens of posts here every day despite being a whole other continent.

Incontinent, surely?

Is it possible to move to a partial other continent? Does a subcontinent count?

You could move to a house in Russia or Turkey that’s partly in Europe and partly in Asia?

Some of the worst gatekeepers on this site still write dozens of posts here ever day despite having moved to whole other continents.

Gloucestershire is another continent?

Incontinent, Shirley?

Triggered... Everyone on ignore!!

Again... 🙄

I believe Incontinent Shirley is a continental 'art' film catering for very specific tastes. The 60s original with Barbara Windsor as Shirley, Hettie Jacques as Matron and Kenneth Williams as the proctologist was very good.

I'm going to wait until GPT4 to ask that one.

Ohh come on...

.

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