AI is transforming science – more researchers need access to these powerful tools for discovery
Beyond the chatbots and productivity tools that have dominated public attention, AI is extending the reach of cutting-edge science and helping scientists globally tackle some of the greatest challenges facing their communities. This profound shift remains underappreciated—and it is leaving the technology’s immense benefits largely untapped.
Unlocking AI’s potential to accelerate science is a defining goal for both of us. We have spent our respective careers working towards this moment – one of us in a decades-long endeavour to build the ultimate tool to advance science, the other in advancing how technology can be harnessed to progress humanity and benefit people everywhere.
Five years ago, our AlphaFold AI system solved the 50-year grand challenge of protein structure prediction and brought AI-enabled scientific breakthroughs to the forefront. What’s less known is that since then, the freely available AlphaFold Protein Database has been used by more than 3 million researchers across more than 190 countries. More than one-third of those researchers are working in low- and middle- income countries. It’s rapidly become a standard tool for scientists tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Access to this knowledge is enabling researchers to take on regional problems with global significance – from scientists at the National University of Malaysia working to understand how Meliodosis, a disease more deadly than dengue, spreads in order to accelerate new treatment to researchers at India’s Birla Institute of Technology and Science breeding soybeans resistant to charcoal rot infections.
AlphaFold is our first major proof point of AI’s power to advance science but it is only the beginning: we’re seeing early promising results from a wide range of open access research tools. AI co-scientist is helping scientists uncover new, original knowledge and generate novel hypotheses for challenging scientific problems; studies showed it independently proposed the same hypotheses researchers had spent years developing on applications like finding new uses for existing drugs or better understanding how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. EarthAI uses foundation models and cross-modal reasoning to provide geospatial insights that can improve environmental monitoring and disaster response. AlphaGenome can predict which mutations are fuelling cancer and could help us better understand the molecular underpinning of the disease in people and develop more personalized therapies.
Many think of AI-enabled research advances as a benefit for the future and a goal to work towards, but its impact on public health, food security, crisis resilience, and more is improving people’s lives today. For example, in health care, AI models are being used for effective diagnosis of diseases affecting millions like tuberculosis, cancers, and more. We worked with scientific and medical partners to build an AI model that helps detect diabetic retinopathy – a treatable but growing cause of preventable blindness – specifically for patients who might otherwise not receive regular screenings. The model has already been used for 600,000 screenings globally, and new partnerships in India and Thailand will scale that to at least 6 million more over the next decade.
In food security, we’re developing plant phenotyping foundation models to help accelerate the development of new climate-resilient seeds. Relatedly, in climate resilience, the Indian government is pioneering the use of AI-driven monsoon predictions, deploying alerts to 38 million farmers to help them make more informed decisions on when to plant their crops. We have extended our ability to predict with 6+ days advance riverine floods from a handful of countries to over 150 countries covering places where more than 2 billion people live.
AI clearly has the potential to help address some of the biggest challenges society faces, but progress remains uneven as scientists and other innovators continue to face barriers to resources and infrastructure. If the world is to truly benefit from the positive potential AI holds for science and society, more scientists need access to the right tools, technology, and partnerships.
Making this a reality can’t be done by any one company or government alone: It will require action and partnerships between researchers, tech companies, academia, NGOs, the private sector, the public sector, and more. This is why the upcoming India AI Impact Summit – the first global AI summit hosted by an emerging economy – is so important. It’s a chance for leaders across all of these areas to not just discuss AI and its impact, but to co-design a future where AI serves everyone. Some of our biggest opportunities – such as accelerating science to tackle global challenges like hunger or disease – and risks are international in nature and can only be tackled together. Our hope and goal for the summit and our work in the year ahead is simple: make AI accessible to everyone so that the next big scientific breakthroughs can be made everywhere.
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