Public contributions

  • AlphaFold has solved the protein-folding problem.

    AlphaFold predicts many protein structures accurately, but its predictions still need experimental checking, and for proteins that can adopt two folds it usually predicts only one. The Nobel citation credits structure prediction, and the successor model is still extending to complexes. Predicting a structure is not the same as explaining how proteins fold, move and interact.

  • AI chatbots can diagnose medical cases as accurately as doctors.

    GPT-4 scored strongly against physicians on written diagnostic cases, and Google's AMIE matched or exceeded clinicians in simulated consultations. A pooled analysis of 83 studies found no significant difference from non-specialist physicians, though AI performed below experts. The evidence comes from test cases and simulated patients, not routine care of real patients.

  • AI text detectors can reliably tell AI-written text from human writing.

    Tests of detection tools found poor reliability, frequent mislabelling of writing by non-native English speakers, and easy evasion through paraphrasing. OpenAI withdrew its own classifier for low accuracy. A claim of reliability needs a named detector, version, population and error rate.

  • Large language models frequently invent sources and citations.

    Studies of generated bibliographies, legal questions, commercial legal research tools and systematic-review searches all found language models producing references that do not exist. Rates differ widely by model and task, and one comparison found negligible fabrication from retrieval-based tools. Older measured rates should not be assumed for every current system.