James Manyika Tells How AI Is Compressing Centuries Of Scientific Discovery Into Moments

At Davos 2026: Artificial Intelligence is compressing centuries of scientific progress into moments.Breakthroughs like AlphaFold have mapped over 200 million protein structures -work that once demanded hundreds of years. AI is now transforming materials science, discovering millions of new crystals and accelerating innovation at unprecedented speed.Beyond acceleration, the real revolution is democratization. By open-sourcing these tools, AI empowers over 3.5 million researchers across nearly 190 countries-including nearly 180,000 from India - to access capabilities once reserved for elite labs.Scientists can now address neglected diseases and complex challenges without massive infrastructure, making discovery faster, fairer, and truly global.