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Alphabet's DeepMind AI Algorithm Wins Protein-Folding Contest

  • Technique may help medical research, speed drug discovery
  • Company applies similar techniques that helped it master Go

Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Google Images

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DeepMind, the artificial-intelligence company owned by Google parent company Alphabet Inc., has created an algorithm that won a competition for predicting the complex, three-dimensional shapes into which proteins can be folded.

The shape of proteins is important for understanding many biological processes, and a key step in finding molecules that may be useful in the creation of new medicines.