“An entire career in 10 seconds”: on protein chemistry, AI, and the threat of obsolescence

Since 2021, the field of protein chemistry has been in a state of heightened uncertainty, owing in large part to the introduction of novel artificial intelligence tools. Much of the fanfare surrounding the new AI tools in protein chemistry revolves around the possibilities these new technologies open up. However, the focus on young scientists with budding careers and a horizon of future possibilities eclipses what such a disruptive moment might mean, in practice, for practitioners pursuing ongoing research programs on paths that might have suddenly changed shape, perhaps reaching an endpoint. Worries about the obsolescence of highly paid, highly educated workers at the hands of AI have abounded in the last few years. The sciences, I argue, provide a privileged site in which to explore the meanings (or meaninglessness) of threatened obsolescence. In this article, I draw on interviews with a structural chemist and longstanding interlocutor in order to trace an actor’s perspective on encountering and navigating perceived technical and epistemic disruption. I use Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s notion of “conjuncture” to illuminate threatened obsolescence as a dense node made up of technological, epistemic, and social ingredients.