Did This Chinese Scientist Lose Her Job to Artificial Intelligence? Yan Ning Answers Speculations

The AI takeover is here. At least, that is what some newspapers thought upon hearing about Chinese structural biologist Yan Ning's decision to give up a permanent post at Princeton University and work at the motherland instead, alleging advanced AI has made her expertise obsolete.

Yan's Controversial Decision

The South China Morning Post reports that Chinese scientist Yan Ning broke her silence in the Shenzhen forum, denying that her return to China was because of a lost battle against AI.

The scientist told the press that amid modern advancements in machine learning, there are still many areas of her field of expertise that artificial still needs to cover. "We embrace AI, but we are disappointed after trying it out," this is what Yan said at the Xplorer Forum hosted by the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen on Nov. 27.

In the speech, she also discussed AlphaFold, a type of artificial intelligence software created by DeepMind that predicts protein structure.

The speech's fundamental issue is AI's limitations in structural biology research. For several leading researchers, the goal of structural biology is biology itself to comprehend life and create biological discoveries-and a structure resolution is only a tool for doing so.

Yan stated on the forum that "the result is not bad, but not enough to replace scientists everywhere."

The scientist added that there is still much work to be done, and since the forecasts are based on its learning from known protein structures, it is more accurate for proteins with similar amino acid sequences and seems flawed for novel proteins.

Yan, who left Tsinghua University in China for Princeton in 2017, announced on Nov. 1 that she would be serving as dean of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation. In her most recent public address, she refuted claims that an AI caused her "unemployment."

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According to a Global Times editorial, the biologist Yan Ning's return to China prompted extensive discussion and interest among Chinese scientific circles.

Yan referred to her return to China as her "third dream." In 10 or 20 years, She believes that Shenzhen will play a significant role in biomedicine following the combined efforts of numerous generations. She also wants to "create a platform to support more outstanding scholars" and "make original breakthroughs."

More About Yan Ning

Yan Ning's name has long extended beyond the realm of scientists and is well-known in the local community. The "Goddess scientist," Yan Ning, who in 2007 was named Tsinghua's "youngest doctoral supervisor," is a person who "does not at all take the usual path."

She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Ten years later, in 2017, she accepted an invitation from Princeton University to become the Shirley M. Tilghman Professor of Molecular Biology. Yan has frequently been the subject of public discussion due to many remarkable events.