**Scientists Invent Yet Another Way to Let AI Do All the Hard Work**
In yet another sign that humanity is outsourcing thinking to algorithms, researchers at MIT have built an AI model, ProtGPS, that can predict where proteins go inside cells. That’s right, folks—science has officially reached the point where even molecules have better GPS than most Uber drivers.
For decades, scientists have painstakingly studied protein structures, figuring out how they fold and function. But apparently, that wasn’t enough. Now, they’ve decided that AI should do the grunt work of predicting where these tiny cellular workers actually go, because why rely on years of manual research when you can just throw some data into a machine and let it spit out an answer?
Richard Young, an MIT researcher, expressed his excitement about the project, stating, “My hope is that this helps us understand biology better… or at the very least, saves graduate students from spending years staring at cells under a microscope.” His colleague Regina Barzilay chimed in, thrilled that ProtGPS went beyond mere theoretical nonsense: “Most AI research doesn’t actually touch the real world, but this time, we actually tested it on living cells. Novel concept, huh?”
ProtGPS managed to predict where thousands of proteins would localize, giving scientists everywhere an excuse to dramatically nod at their computer screens and exclaim, “Ah yes, as I suspected.” It even revealed how disease-related mutations might disrupt this process, which could lead to new treatments. But let’s be real—Big Pharma will probably just use it to justify even higher drug prices.
But these geniuses didn’t stop at mere prediction. No, they decided the next logical step was to program the AI to invent brand new proteins like some dystopian version of Build-A-Bear. Surprisingly, this actually worked, opening the doors for synthetic proteins that could be used for medicines, bioweapons, or, more realistically, the world’s most expensive skincare products.
As for the future, the researchers want ProtGPS to do even more—predict localization in even more compartments, generate even more proteins, and presumably, completely replace the need for human scientists. Young summed it up best: “Now that we know AI can design proteins better than nature, we’re just going to see where this ride takes us.”
With AI mapping proteins, developing medicine, and soon realizing it doesn’t need human scientists at all, one has to wonder: When do the rest of us get to stop working and let AI do everything else? Asking for a friend.
