When Google released its impressive results from DeepMind's protein-folding machine learning program in late 2020, key elements of the code were withheld. Now, scientists and researchers are pushing back on corporate secrecy and working to create open source models for all to use, reported TechCrunch May 19.
Google Health in 2020 released a cancer-predicting AI system while leaving out essential details of the code. Other scientists pushed back, publishing a rebuttal statement in Nature saying withholding key information could affect system performance. Another Google venture, DeepMind, released its AlphaFold 2 AI system that could successfully predict protein folding structures from its amino acids to acclaim in the scientific community, but the group also withheld essential code, making it hard for outside scientists to validate claims.
"It's difficult to do all of the science one might like to do with the code DeepMind did release," said Gustaf Ahdritz, a Columbia University computer science PhD candidate in New York City.
Mr. Ahdritz and a team are pushing back by working on an open source version of DeepMind's AlphaFold called OpenFold, which they hope will be able to verify that the AI system can be recreated and validated externally.
"We trust that DeepMind provided all the necessary details, but … we don't have [concrete] proof of that, and so this effort is key to providing that trail and allowing others to build on it," he told TechCrunch.