On This Day in AI History

AlphaFold cracks the protein-folding problem at CASP14

At the CASP14 assessment announced at the end of November 2020, DeepMind's AlphaFold 2 predicted protein 3D structures with accuracy rivaling experimental methods, a breakthrough on a roughly 50-year grand challenge in biology. Organizers declared the structure-prediction problem essentially solved for many cases. The work later contributed to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Hassabis and Jumper.