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How Artificial Intelligence Shapes Science: Evidence from AlphaFold
- Truvace record
- TRV-2026-2494raw data (JSON)
- Version
- v1Published
- First published
- Evidence type
- Observational studyPreprint, not yet peer reviewed
- Sources
- 1 sourcePeer-reviewed
- sha256
- 7d0937b49b91…check it
We study how a frontier AI model affects scientific discovery by examining the release of the AlphaFold2 algorithm and its impact on structural biology and related fields of science. Structural biology is the field of science concerned with understanding the structure and function of proteins. Researchers in this field historically devoted substantial time and resources to experimentally solving three-dimensional protein structures. AlphaFold can predict these structures without running experiments. In July 2021…
The gain
A working paper comparing proteins with and without a pre-2021 experimental structure found that basic research on proteins lacking a structure rose 15 to 40% after AlphaFold2's July 2021 release.
What this doesn’t fix
The drug-development finding rests on public ChEMBL data over three years and is described as noisy; private pharmaceutical bioactivity work is not captured, so activity there could differ.
Sources
1 on file- NBER Working Paperdoi:10.3386/w35143
Cite this record
v1Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-2494, v1: “How Artificial Intelligence Shapes Science: Evidence from AlphaFold.” Truvace, 2026-11-12. /record/TRV-2026-2494 (accessed on the day you copy it). sha256 7d0937b49b91f6ea…
Change history
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