logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2022
33m 52s

AI for science

Hannah Fry
About this episode

Step inside DeepMind's laboratories and you'll find researchers studying DNA to understand the mysteries of life, seeking new ways to use nuclear energy, or putting AI to the test in mind-bending areas of maths. In this episode, Hannah meets Pushmeet Kohli, the head of science at DeepMind, to understand how AI is accelerating scientific progress. Listeners also join Hannah on a [virtual] safari in the Serengeti in East Africa to find out how researchers are using AI to conserve wildlife in one of the world’s most spectacular ecosystems. 

 

For questions or feedback on the series, message us on Twitter @DeepMind or email podcast@deepmind.com. 

 

Interviewees: DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, Pushmeet Kohli & Sarah Jane Dunn; Meredith Palmer of the Princeton University

 

Credits

Presenter: Hannah Fry

Series Producer: Dan Hardoon

Production support: Jill Achineku

Sounds design: Emma Barnaby

Music composition: Eleni Shaw

Sound Engineer: Nigel Appleton

Editor: David Prest

Commissioned by DeepMind

 

Thank you to everyone who made this season possible! 

 

Further reading:

Using AI for scientific discovery, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/AlphaFold-Using-AI-for-scientific-discovery

DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis on its breakthrough scientific discoveries, WIRED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRow9FqUbw

The AI revolution in scientific research, The Royal Society: https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/ai-and-society/AI-revolution-in-science.pdf

DOE Explains...Tokamaks, Office of Science: https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainstokamaks

How AI Accidentally Learned Ecology by Playing StarCraft, Discover: https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/how-ai-accidentally-learned-ecology-by-playing-starcraft

Google AI can identify wildlife from trap-camera footage, VentureBeat:
https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/17/googles-ai-can-identify-wildlife-from-trap-camera-footage-with-up-to-98-6-accuracy/

Snapshot Serengeti, Zooniverse:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zooniverse/snapshot-serengeti

The Human Genome Project, National Human Genome Research Institute: https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project

Exploring the beauty of pure mathematics in novel ways, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/exploring-the-beauty-of-pure-mathematics-in-novel-ways

Predicting gene expression with AI, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/enformer

Using machine learning to accelerate ecological research, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/using-machine-learning-to-accelerate-ecological-research

Accelerating fusion science through learned plasma control, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/Accelerating-fusion-science-through-learned-plasma-control

Simulating matter on the quantum scale with AI, DeepMind: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/Simulating-matter-on-the-quantum-scale-with-AI

How AI is helping the natural sciences, Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02762-6

Inside DeepMind's epic mission to solve science's trickiest problem, WIRED: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/deepmind-protein-folding

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science, Quanta: 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-science-20190311/

Want to share feedback? Why not leave a review on your favorite streaming platform? Have a suggestion for a guest that we should have on next? Leave us a comment on YouTube and stay tuned for future episodes. 

 

Up next
Nov 6
Waymo: The future of autonomous driving with Vincent Vanhoucke
Learn more about Waymo: https://waymo.com/Thank you to everyone who made this possible, including but not limited to: Presenter: Professor Hannah FrySeries Producer: Dan HardoonEditor: Rami TzabarCommissioner & Producer: Emma YousifMusic composition: Eleni ShawAudio engineer: Ric ... Show More
48m 32s
Oct 16
Pt.2 Beyond Phishing: Cyber Threats in the Age of AI with Four Flynn
In part two, Hannah and Four tackle the human element at the heart of cybersecurity: Who are the bad actors, and what motivates them? They dissect the evolving strategies designed to stop social engineering attacks - like passkeys and risk-based authentication - and confront the ... Show More
25m 32s
Oct 9
Pt.1 Beyond Phishing: Cyber Threats in the Age of AI with Four Flynn
Further reading:CodeMender: https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/introducing-codemender-an-ai-agent-for-code-security/Cybersecurity at Google: https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/ai-security-frontier-strategy-tools/Threat intelligence report: https://cloud.google.com/ ... Show More
46m 30s
Recommended Episodes
May 2025
251 - Eliezer Yudkowsky: Artificial Intelligence and the End of Humanity
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, computer scientist, and author who co-founded and leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He is best known for his work on the alignment problem—how and whether we can ensure that AI is aligned with human values to ... Show More
2h 51m
Dec 2024
The TED AI Show: How AI robots learn just like babies — but a million times faster w/ NVIDIA’s Rev Lebaredian
<p>Computers have been outperforming humans for years on tasks like solving complex equations or analyzing data, but when it comes to the physical world, robots struggle to keep up. It can take years to train robots to function in the messy chaos of the “real world” — but thanks ... Show More
53m 27s
Oct 2
When Will AI Make Scientific Discoveries?
Today’s AI Daily Brief asks when artificial intelligence will begin making real scientific discoveries. We look at Periodic Labs, which just raised more than $300 million to build AI scientists and autonomous labs for physics and chemistry, and Thinking Machines, which is creatin ... Show More
24m 25s
Dec 2024
How AI robots learn just like babies — but a million times faster w/ NVIDIA’s Rev Lebaredian
Computers have been outperforming humans for years on tasks like solving complex equations or analyzing data, but when it comes to the physical world, robots struggle to keep up. It can take years to train robots to function in the messy chaos of the “real world” — but thanks to ... Show More
53m 27s
Mar 2023
Humans vs. Machines with Gary Marcus
From the producers of The World as You’ll Know It, a new series about the perils and promise of artificial intelligence with cognitive scientist, Gary Marcus. For all the progress in artificial intelligence over the last 70 years — computers can now beat people at chess and Go, d ... Show More
3m 33s
May 2017
Robots - More Human than Human?
Robots are becoming present in our lives, as companions, carers and as workers. Adam Rutherford explores our relationship with these machines. Have we made them to be merely more dextrous versions of us? Why do we want to make replicas of ourselves? Should we be worried that they ... Show More
26m 59s
May 2025
Artificial Intelligence Ethicology (WILL A.I. CRASH OUT?) with Abeba Birhane
<p>Who’s babysitting AI? Will it steal your job? What happens when you’re rude to a chatbot? Cognitive scientist, Trinity College professor and Artificial Intelligence Ethicologist  Dr. Abeba Birhane lets me ask her not-smart questions about legislation around AI, auditing datase ... Show More
1h 15m
May 2025
Star Trek AI Lessons. WhatsApp AI. AI in Medicine. Pet Communication.
The AI news for May 10th, 2025 Here are the details of the day's selected top stories: Analysis: What Star Trek Teaches About Dealing with Artificial Intelligence Source: https://www.heise.de/hintergrund/Analyse-Was-Star-Trek-ueber-den-Umgang-mit-kuenstlicher-Intelligenz-lehrt-10 ... Show More
4m 37s