The winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work revealing the secrets of proteins through artificial intelligence said Wednesday they hoped their research would “open the door to many incredible scientific breakthroughs”.
But they also warned of the dangers of AI, saying that while it had “extraordinary potential for good”, it could also have negative effects if allowed to develop unchecked.
Americans David Baker and John Jumper, together with Briton Demis Hassabis, were honoured for cracking the code behind the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life.
The jury hailed their work as holding “enormous potential” in a range of fields.
At a press conference in London following the announcement, Jumper said the prize “represents the promise of computational biology”.
“We want to make the world a better place, and we have these incredibly powerful tools to do it. We’re ultimately going to make people healthy because of …