How Scientific Organizations Adapt to Methodological Advances in Artificial Intelligence: The Impact of AlphaFold1

Author: Gabriel Cavalli

Last updated on: June 6th, 2023

Abstract:

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) increase or decrease human expertise in science? The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a methodological advance in artificial intelligence, specifically the unexpected success of AlphaFold1 in 2018, on the size and expertise composition of scientific organizations. AlphaFold1 represented a significant breakthrough in the scientific subfield of “protein folding” (PF) within computational biology. The unexpected success of AlphaFold1 prompted principal investigators of established academic labs engaged in similar PF-related software development to evaluate whether and how to continue their work in the PF subfield. The findings indicate that the labs affected by AlphaFold1 grew in size, mainly through increased recruitment of PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers. However, principal investigators engaged in varying knowledge-generating strategies for contributing to the PF subfield which reflected their academic backgrounds. The analysis addresses several issues: (i) the approaches through which principal investigators identified new opportunities arising with Alphafold1, (ii) the impact on competition between academic labs and its consequences for lab composition; and (iii) the implications of Alphafold1’s computational excellence for the reshaping of projects pursued by human scientists.

Stimulating Innovation on Neglected Diseases: Institutional Development and Knowledge Production in Low- and Middle-Income Countries after TRIPS

Authors: Gabriel Cavalli, Michael Blomfield, Anita McGahan, Keyvan Vakili

Work in progress. This project will be presented at AOM Boston 2023.