DeepMind claims AI has aided new discoveries and insights in mathematics

DeepMind, the AI research laboratory funded by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, today published the results of a collaboration between it and mathematicians to apply AI toward discovering new insights in areas of mathematics. DeepMind claims that its AI technology helped to uncover a new formula for a previously-unsolved conjecture, as well as a connection between different areas of mathematics elucidated by studying the structure of knots.

DeepMind’s experiments with AI run the gamut from systems that can win at StarCraft II and Go to machine learning models for app recommendations and datacenter cooling optimization. But the sciences remain of principle interest to DeepMind, not least of which because of their commercial applications. Earlier this year, DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis announced the launch of Isomorphic Labs, which will use machine learning to identify disease treatments that have thus far eluded researchers. Separately, the lab has spotlighted its work in the fields of weather forecasting, materials modeling, and atomic energy computation.

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