AI

Protein Shake-Up

On a cold March day in 2016, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis reportedly told computer scientist David Silver: “I’m telling you, we can solve protein folding.” 

Four years later, the London-based AI lab says they’ve figured out the protein-folding problem—a biological mystery that’s flummoxed scientists for 50 years. 

Explain it like I’m five 

Mitochondria may be ~the powerhouse of the cell~, but proteins are one of its main building blocks. 

So where does protein folding come in? Whichever shape a protein folds into will decide its function. The challenge is that proteins can take a virtually infinite number of forms. 

• Think of it as similar to betting on a racehorse—you can make educated guesses based on available info, but there’s no way to know where a horse will finish the race.  

Bottom line: If you can predict a protein’s shape, then you can essentially predict its function. Since research suggests many diseases—Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, cancer—are influenced by incorrect protein folding, this breakthrough is a really big deal for disease research and drug discovery. 

Something old 

Two years ago, the company released its first attempted protein-folding solution. But it wasn’t quite effective enough for use in the field. 

John Jumper, the protein-folding team’s senior researcher, told Fortune in an exclusive that V1 used “relatively off-the-shelf neural network technology.” 

• When the team tried to build on that version, they “hit a real wall in what [they] were able to do.” 

Something new 

This time, the team custom-built a neural network from the ground up. Unlike V1, which was made of separate components, the new AlphaFold is an end-to-end system—which can translate to more accurate results. 

The flip side: Like most end-to-end systems, AlphaFold's decision-making is opaque and hard to explain. While DeepMind can’t offer full insight into how the model arrived at a prediction, it will provide scientists with a confidence measure for each prediction. 

Critics’ corner 

Some critics say that due to lack of precision, it’s “laughable” to call the problem solved. Others will likely remain skeptical until they can examine AlphaFold’s code, calling on DeepMind to release it to the public domain. And virtually all plan to wait and see how the model performs IRL. 

Big picture: Caveats aside, experts agree this is a major step forward in disease research and drug discovery. 

AUTO

From BBM to Brake Sensors

Years ago, BlackBerry traded in the title of “mighty smartphone slinger” for “security software specialist.” An unexciting swap, sure, but one that kept it afloat. 

Then came yesterday, when BlackBerry announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to develop its IVY “intelligent vehicle data platform.” Another nothingburger to the untrained eye, but music to investors’ ears: BlackBerry’s stock shot up as much as 65% yesterday, its biggest one-day gain on record. 

Why so high?

BlackBerry is already a car connoisseur: Its QNX software is embedded in 175+ million vehicles.

IVY represents another layer of vehicle integration. Automakers will be able to use the system to crunch sensor data, roll out over-the-air updates based on that data, and personalize in-car experiences. IVY will run inside vehicle sensors, but it can be tweaked remotely. 

The remote connectivity part is where the top dog in cloud computing comes in. From an optics perspective, scooping AWS as a tech partner was a boon for BlackBerry. 

• And for its part, AWS likely did far more due diligence on the IVY partnership than GM did for the (scrapped) Nikola deal.

SPONSORED BY BRIGHTCOVE

Some Unsurprising News About Your News Consumption

Odds are you know it’s up (aka: there’s been a little drama lately). Viewing of news has increased more than 50%. But did you know video was the primary way people are viewing? 

Brightcove did.

Brightcove makes it possible for news organizations to launch faster, deliver faster, and scale instantly. That means media businesses have the tools to know how, when, and where people are consuming news.

Media behemoths all over the world—like Conde Nast Italia, BBC, and Forbes Media—use Brightcove to streamline their video workflow, monetize their advertising opportunities, and live stream.

You can bet La Cucina Italia was saying mama mia after they became one of Conde’s most successful digital destinations with over 1.8 million video views per month and $700k+ in annual video ad revenue with Brightcove. 

See what Brightcove can do for your business today. 

M&A

Know Your Kustomer

Facebook: We want to become a platform for social kommerce. Who can help? 
Kustomer: *enters the chat*

Facebook has agreed to acquire customer relationship management startup Kustomer at a valuation just north of $1 billion, the WSJ reports. Kustomer’s core competency = centralizing customer interactions across channels.  

• Kustomer’s “omnichannel” approach means customers and agents can toggle correspondence between platforms. They can slide from Instagram DM to web chat to SMS without the convo dropping off. 
• Kustomer’s software augments the capacity of human agents by determining the nature of inbound requests and offloading simple conversational tasks to chatbots.  

Why is FB interested? Over 175 million users contact businesses via WhatsApp every day. Others use Instagram or Messenger to do the same thing. As FB makes a serious push into social commerce, brands need tools to manage comms with customers. Kustomer represents a light-touch, automated step in that direction. 

+ While we’re here: Retail Brew and Emerging Tech Brew recently covered the technologies powering e-commerce. And we mentioned Kustomer.

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Digital advertising is projected to make up more than 50% of total ad spend for the first time ever: an expected $110.1 billion of the $214.6 billion total U.S. forecast (excluding political ads). 

Quote: “It’s a very different set of people who are buying Bitcoin recently. They are doing it in steadier amounts over sustained periods of time, and they are taking it off exchanges and holding it as an investment.”—Phillip Gradwell, chief economist at Chainalysis, to the NYT. 

Read: VentureBeat explored how conversational AI is influencing big-ticket Senate wins. 

SPONSORED BY KIWICO

Your kids will be smarter than you. KiwiCo delivers hands-on science and art projects for kids that are seriously fun—but be warned, this is not for insecure parents. A KiwiCo subscription will have your kids feeling constantly creative and curious for as low as $16.95 per month. But, be warned, it will also turn your kids into your intellectual superiors. Inspire your kids for 50% off the first month here.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Libra Association -> Diem Association. Along with the rebrand, Facebook’s digital currency initiative announced a slew of new exec hires. 
• Italy is fining Apple $12 million for its allegedly misleading marketing about iPhone water resistance (the link’s in Italian).  
• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will step down on Jan. 20. 
• Mexico and the Tequila Regulatory Council won’t let Elon Musk name Tesla’s tequila “Teslaquila.” 
• Ikea is using drones to scan warehouse shelves.
• Amazon launched AWS Trainium, a chip dedicated to machine learning applications. 

TRIVIA

With our Special Delivery guide hot off the press and Black Friday-Cyber Monday in the rearview mirror, there was really only one topic we could choose for this week’s trivia. Test your knowledge of e-commerce and the tech powering it...

...by taking this week’s quiz here. 

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For biology buffs: Can’t get enough of protein folding? (Never thought we’d say that.) DeepMind created an illustrated video animation explaining how the process works. 

For AInspiration: A new Google experiment uses AI to jumpstart creativity in poetry-writing. Try your hand at composing verse as the algorithm offers suggestions “from” experts like Dickinson, Whitman, and Longfellow. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Diem’s potential January launch 
• Trends to watch in e-commerce 
• Inside an AI-powered savings algorithm