AI agents may hold more promise for accelerating scientific discovery than AlphaFold, according to Schmidt Sciences researchers Eric Schmidt and Suhas Mahesh. While AlphaFold won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry by predicting protein structures, it relied on a dataset of roughly 170,000 experimentally validated proteins that took 53 years and approximately $21 billion worth of experimental work to compile—resources that may not be available in many other scientific fields. Unlike AlphaFold, which applies a powerful approach to a limited question, AI agents can model the iterative and contingent process of actual research, making them inherently more generalizable.
Separately, the theory of a "censorship-industrial complex" that allegedly suppressed conservative and populist speech has moved from right-wing online circles into the Trump administration. Over the past nine months, MIT Technology Review investigated the origins of this theory and traced its rise into mainstream policy discussions. A virtual roundtable featuring senior reporter Eileen Guo and executive editor Amy Nordrum is scheduled for August 13 to explore these findings and their implications for democracy and the internet.