This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that delivers a daily dose of what’s happening in the world of technology.
AI for Science Needs Reasoning, Not Just Data
By Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and cofounder of Schmidt Sciences, and Suhas Mahesh, who leads the AI for science work at the AI Center of Schmidt Sciences
In 2024, Google DeepMind scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, a neural network that predicts protein structures. It demonstrated that AI could make groundbreaking scientific discoveries—but AlphaFold may not be the best template for accelerating science. Instead, another approach could be the key: AI agents.
AlphaFold relied on a dataset of roughly 170,000 experimentally validated protein structures, which took 53 years and about $21 billion in experimental work to assemble. Comparable datasets will be difficult or impossible to create in many fields. AI agents, by contrast, can model the iterative, highly contingent nature of real research. While tools like AlphaFold apply a powerful method to a narrow question, agents are inherently generalists. They don’t represent a new way to do science—they digitally mirror the human process of discovery.
In 2026, as AI agents become more sophisticated, they are poised to handle tasks such as hypothesis generation, experimental design, and even autonomous literature review. The shift from data-hungry models to reasoning-driven agents is crucial, especially in fields where data is scarce or costly to obtain. This evolution could accelerate discoveries in biology, materials science, and beyond.
Plus: A New Amazon Data Center Could Become the US’s Most Polluting Power Plant
In other news, a proposed Amazon data center has raised concerns that it could become the most polluting power plant in the United States. The facility, if built, would consume vast amounts of energy, potentially relying on fossil fuels and undermining climate goals. This underscores the growing tension between the digital economy’s energy demands and sustainability commitments. As AI workloads surge, the environmental footprint of data centers is becoming a critical issue for tech companies and policymakers alike.
Stay tuned for more updates in tomorrow’s edition of The Download.