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Chinese scientist Yan Ning denies AI took her job in US and forced her back home

  • Structural biologist tells Shenzhen forum there remain many places AI has not reached in her field of research
  • Expert says AlphaFold algorithm has uses but he remains concerned about its role in development of new drugs

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After five years at Princeton University in the US, Yan Ning returns to China to establish and serve as dean of Shenzhen Medical Academy. Photo: Weibo
Zhang Tongin Beijing
A life scientist who made headlines in China when she gave up a permanent post at Princeton University has rejected suggestions that her return was prompted by a losing battle in her field against AI.
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Structural biologist Yan Ning said there were still many places artificial intelligence had not reached in her field of research. “We embrace AI, but we are disappointed after trying it out,” said Yan, who is also known as Nieng Yan.

Yan made the assessment at the Xplorer Forum hosted by the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen on November 27.

As well as updating the forum on her research, Yan gave her opinion on AlphaFold, the artificial intelligence program developed by DeepMind that performs predictions of protein structure.

Yan, who left Tsinghua University for Princeton in 2017, declared on November 1 she had quit her job in the US and would establish and serve as dean of Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation.

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Her Xplorer speech was in response to online claims that she chose to return to China because the development of AI systems such as AlphaFold had created her “unemployment”.

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