Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming biomolecular and material sciences, enabling rapid predictions and generative design of proteins, drugs, and materials. However, current AI models often fail to adhere to fundamental physical laws, scientific objectives, and safety principles, leading to impractical or unsafe outcomes. A research team led by Qiang Zhang at Zhejiang University and collaborators from Tongji University, Shanghai AI Laboratory, Duke University, the National University of Singapore, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mingdu Tech, and University College London, has proposed a comprehensive alignment framework. Their perspective argues that AI systems for biomolecular and materials design should be aligned not only with data distributions or benchmark performance, but also with natural laws, scientific goals, and responsible research principles. By analyzing examples across protein engineering, drug discovery, and materials science, the authors show that many AI-generated candidates fail not because models are useless, but because the objectives being optimized are often disconnected from the physical, functional, and regulatory realities of the laboratory and the real world. This approach aims to make AI a trustworthy and effective partner in scientific discovery.

Simon Fraser University researchers have received nearly $1 million in special funding from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada to develop an artificial intelligence–powered system that forecasts whale movements in busy shipping corridors.

The Humans and Algorithms Listening for Orcas (HALLO) project aims to help the Port of Vancouver and vessel pilots make more informed decisions about when and where to slow down for the Salish Sea’s endangered Southern Resident killer whales.

The system integrates real-time acoustic and visual data, vessel tracking, and citizen-scientist whale spotting reports to track not only where the Southern Resident J, K, and L pods currently are, but forecast where they’ll be over the next few hours.