Google has revealed the remarkable scientific breakthroughs it has made this year that have been made possible by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. On Monday, Google DeepMind co-hosted the inaugural edition of the AI for Science Forum in London with the Royal Society. During the event, the Mountain View-based tech giant touted accomplishments such as using AI models to predict protein structures, expanding its flood forecasting system, and a wildfire detection and tracking system. DeepMind was also able to create a system that is capable of controlling plasma with a nuclear fusion reactor.
Google outlines its major scientific breakthroughs in 2024
The tech giant said AI has played a vital role in solving many complex problems in science using its computational techniques in the current year. The company also stressed that AI is not a replacement for scientists but can become an important assistant to them.
One of Google DeepMind’s biggest achievements was when the tech giant’s AI research wing used its AlphaFold 2 AI model to predict the structures of 200 million proteins. The company highlighted that this discovery has advanced the scientific community by decades as determining the 3D structure of a single protein can take up to a year. Notably, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, the individuals behind this project, were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery.
Google also partnered with the Lichtman Lab at Harvard to map a slice of the human brain at an unprecedented scale. The project was released this year and revealed structures within the human brain that were previously unseen.
In 2024, AI also helped Google improve its prediction and tracking systems. The company’s river flood forecasting system was massively expanded in 2024 and now covers 100 countries and 700 million people globally. The tech giant has also partnered with the US Forest Service to develop a FireSat AI model that can detect and track wildfires as small as the size of a classroom within 20 minutes.
GraphQL, a machine learning research model developed by Google DeepMind, can now predict the tracks of cyclones. The company claims it can predict such weather-based disturbances faster and more accurately than traditional weather simulation systems.
Advances were also made in mathematical logic and quantum computing. DeepMind’s AlphaGeometry AI system, launched in 2024, solved complex geometry problems at the same level as a human Olympiad gold medalist. Google researchers also worked with UC Berkeley and Columbia University to conduct chemical simulations on quantum computers to predict chemical reactivity and kinetics.
Looking towards sustainable energy, the tech giant announced Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNOME), which discovered 3,80,000 materials that are stable at low temperatures, leading to new ways to make better solar cells, batteries and potentially superconductors. The roads are open.
The tech giant also achieved success in nuclear fusion, which is considered the energy of the future. Collaborating with the Swiss Plasma Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Google DeepMind announced the development of an AI system that can control plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor without any manual assistance. It’s still a work in progress, but the company said it’s an important step toward stable fusion and abundant clean energy.
