AI-designed molecular scissors cut Alzheimer's proteins — but is it really AI?
gerardsans · x · 2026-10-15
A viral post claims David Baker's lab (Nobel Prize for protein design) used AI to build enzymes from scratch that cut proteins linked to Alzheimer's and ALS: 36% of designs worked, the best accelerated the reaction 100 million-fold, and 10 billion-fold after 4 small changes — though most remain weaker than natural enzymes. A reply pushes back: this is algorithmic search, not AI capability — "using a dictionary doesn't make you a better writer," and the industry keeps dressing up algorithms as AI advances.
Related event: Baker Lab Publishes Two Nature Papers on De Novo AI-Designed Proteases(6 posts)→
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