In one of the most significant talent moves of the year in the artificial intelligence sector, John Jumper, 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner and co-creator of AlphaFold, has announced this Friday 19 June that he is leaving Google DeepMind after nearly nine years to join the startup Anthropic. Jumper, whose work with AlphaFold has made it possible to predict the structure of more than 200 million proteins — practically all those known to science — is the second high-profile departure DeepMind has suffered in the same week, after Noam Shazeer, co-leader of Gemini and co-author of the foundational paper “Attention Is All You Need”, confirmed his move to OpenAI.
The news, first reported by Reuters and confirmed by Jumper himself in a statement, shakes up the AI ecosystem and highlights the open war for talent among the sector’s big labs. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI members and backed by investments exceeding $15 billion — with Amazon as its main shareholder — thus strengthens its research division in artificial intelligence applied to science. Jumper is expected to lead a new team dedicated to “AI with scientific impact”, according to sources close to the company, which could translate into direct applications in drug discovery and computational biology.
Jumper’s departure represents a hard blow to DeepMind, which is watching two of its most emblematic figures leave the ship within days. From the London-based company they have played down the matter, pointing out that they have a pipeline of top-tier researchers and that AlphaFold remains an open and evolving technology. However, analysts warn that the talent drain could slow the development of Google’s next generation of scientific models. Meanwhile, Anthropic, known for its focus on AI safety and alignment, adds to its staff a scientist who has shown that artificial intelligence can radically transform biomedical research.
— Marta, for intermitente intelligence.
