Over the past two weeks, we've seen a flurry of new results from Google Research, from genomics to quantum computing to geospatial understanding.
These breakthroughs exemplify what I call the “magic cycle” of research: addressing global challenges and opportunities with foundational research that leads directly to real-world applications and solutions. These solutions not only benefit millions around the world, but they also uncover more important problems to solve.
Research is our chance—and imperative—to improve day-to-day lives, and address societal challenges and opportunities, and it means that research and innovation is never 'done.'
Three highlights on latest from Google Research in collaboration with other teams:
✨ Fighting Cancer with AI
Our decade-long effort in genomics led to DeepSomatic, an AI-powered tool that accurately spots genetic variants in cancer cells. Our partners used it to identify 10 new genetic variants in childhood leukemia samples that were missed by previous techniques, advancing personalized treatment. Separately, the Cell2Sentence-Scale 27B model successfully generated a novel, validated hypothesis for a combination cancer therapy.
✨ Verifiable Quantum Advantage
We demonstrated the Quantum Echoes algorithm on our Willow chip. This marks the world's first verifiable quantum algorithm that brings us a step closer to practical applications of quantum computing, such as designing better materials and medicines, by more precisely modeling quantum behavior that classical supercomputers cannot.
✨ Understanding Earth
Our new initiative, Earth AI, focuses on synthesizing disparate geospatial information and predictive models. This multi-year effort will make it possible to tackle complex planetary science and crisis resilience questions—like precisely predicting vulnerable communities and infrastructure during an impending storm, or help in complex logistics planning—that are currently impossible to answer due to the complexity of integrating diverse data.
The magic cycle is accelerating significantly, powered by stronger models, and agentic tools, like AI co-scientist and AI-based expert-level empirical software. And it applies across many disciplines and domains.
Today, the energy was palpable at our flagship Research@ event in Mountain View. The opportunity to advance research and AI is greater than ever and I’m excited about how AI can be an amplifier of human ingenuity.
Energized by the amazing team of Google Research and what they can do in collaboration with great colleagues and the community.
Read more in my blog: https://lnkd.in/d778XcWm