3 ms·
Yeah I know about Isomorphic labs. My point is that talent Alphafold will draw is more valuable than potential drug discovery profits.
by alphabetting 5y ago
Yeah I know about Isomorphic labs. My point is that talent Alphafold will draw is more valuable than potential drug discovery profits.
- mechagodzilla 5y agoWhere does the value come in if you pay them lots of money to work on unprofitable things? Just by virtue of not letting your competitors hire them?
- alphabetting 5y agoProfit is later. I strongly believe this take. https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1502775288257601540 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/1502775288257601540
- folli 5y agoIf the promise of in silico drug design comes to fruition, the potential drug discovery profits could very well rival Google's ad profits.
- dekhn 5y agoSure. AlphaFold is, in fact, the greatest shot at revenue that DeepMind has shown so far (and they are under intense pressure from Alphabet to show revenue).
- alphabetting 5y agoI don't think there is any pressure on that front. They are supposedly profitable now (though i'm guessing this is partially accounting tricks) but there just isn't a need to be profitable. Search and Youtube print money to fund their R&D ($31B last year alone). The goal is AGI or close to it. https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/10/ai-lab-deepmind-becomes-profitable-and-bolsters-relationship-with-google/ https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/10/ai-lab-deepmind-becomes-p...
- dekhn 5y agoThe "profit" you're pointing at is money that Google pays DeepMind to do software and machine learning as a service for them. This pays off, for example with Jax, where nobody in Google Research could touch it because Jeff Dean/Tensorflow, until DM demonstrated (with alphafold) that Jax could do nobel-prize-winning research, to the point where Jeff has admitted that tensorflow has serious problems and systems like jax are the future (see the palm paper!!!)