According to a report from the Financial Times, Google's AI research division, DeepMind, has disbanded the team responsible for the development of the Nobel Prize-winning AI system, AlphaFold. AlphaFold transformed the landscape of biological research by leveraging AI to accurately predict protein structures. Over the past year, a majority of the original researchers who contributed to AlphaFold's foundational papers have been reassigned to different teams within Google. Some have shifted their focus to projects centered around Google's Gemini large language model, while others have ventured into areas such as enzyme design, nuclear fusion research, and genomics. Additionally, a number of team members have transitioned to Isomorphic Labs, a pharmaceutical development company operating under the Alphabet umbrella. Notably, nearly a quarter of the full-time Google DeepMind researchers who authored AlphaFold's seminal paper have departed from the company. This strategic realignment underscores a notable pivot in DeepMind's research direction, spurred by the ascent of large language models. The shift marks a transition from a singular focus on specific scientific challenges to the construction of Gemini-powered systems designed to support scientists and automate segments of the scientific discovery process.
