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Heading into the DeepMind documentary, I admittedly carried a degree of skepticism, half-expecting a polished corporate showcase replete with Google branding and perhaps even a cameo from CEO Sundar Pichai. It was, therefore, a pleasant and commendable surprise to find the focus remained steadfastly on the science and the people driving it. By largely eschewing overt corporate promotion, the film gains significant credibility, allowing the gravity of DeepMind's achievements to resonate more authentically, feeling less like an advertisement and more like a genuine exploration of groundbreaking research.

The true highlight, and arguably the core substance of the narrative, revolves around the revolutionary work on protein folding with AlphaFold. Witnessing the explanation of this breakthrough is genuinely awe-inspiring. What DeepMind has accomplished here isn't merely an incremental advancement; it's a monumental leap that addresses one of biology's grand challenges - predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences, a puzzle that has perplexed scientists for decades. The potential implications are staggering, promising to accelerate drug discovery, deepen our understanding of diseases, and potentially revolutionize fields across medicine and biology.

This focus on fundamental scientific discovery powerfully recontextualizes the current frenzy surrounding large language models (LLMs). While technologies like ChatGPT and their ilk are undeniably impressive feats of engineering, demonstrating remarkable capabilities in text generation and human-like interaction, the documentary subtly underscores a difference in the magnitude and nature of the problems being solved. Compared to unraveling the intricate machinery of life itself, the (admittedly sophisticated) pattern matching and predictive text capabilities of many contemporary LLMs begin to feel, relatively speaking, less profound. It's not to dismiss the utility or ingenuity of LLMs, but AlphaFold's success serves as a potent reminder that AI's greatest promise might lie in tackling foundational scientific questions with tangible, potentially life-altering consequences, rather than solely mimicking human conversation. The film certainly recalibrated my perspective on the current AI landscape and its most impactful applications.