Deep
Explanation
The Joke
A scientist enthusiastically announces a breakthrough: "Using the latest methods in deep learning, we have solved the most fundamental problem in biology -- the protein folding problem!" This references the real achievement of DeepMind's AlphaFold, which made headlines in 2020 for its breakthrough in predicting protein structures.
The next panel shows the scientist continuing with a follow-up claim about another discovery involving Google's vast computational resources and capital being applied to further biological problems. Then someone asks: "Are you sure planning to use AI for other scientific discoveries too?" The scientist responds that they will get to that "After the Facebook protein" -- implying the next priority is not curing diseases or advancing science but rather using protein-folding AI for some trivial social media or commercial application.
The final panel shows a whiteboard or presentation with "Apple Sucks" written on it, suggesting that the great scientific tool has been co-opted for petty corporate rivalry rather than advancing human knowledge.
The Humor
The comic satirizes the tension between the incredible scientific potential of AI and the commercial realities of the tech companies that develop it. DeepMind's protein folding breakthrough was one of the most significant scientific achievements of the decade, but the comic imagines a world where such powerful tools are immediately redirected toward trivial corporate objectives like social media features or competitive jabs at rival companies.
The joke captures a real anxiety: that transformative AI capabilities developed by profit-driven tech companies will be applied primarily to advertising, engagement optimization, and corporate competition rather than to solving humanity's greatest challenges. The contrast between "solving the protein folding problem" and "Apple Sucks" on a whiteboard perfectly encapsulates this concern.
References
This comic directly references DeepMind's AlphaFold, which in December 2020 (right when this comic was published) demonstrated remarkable accuracy in predicting protein structures, a problem that had been one of biology's grand challenges for 50 years. The protein folding problem asks how a protein's amino acid sequence determines its three-dimensional structure, which is crucial for drug development and understanding disease. DeepMind is owned by Alphabet (Google's parent company), which adds to the comic's point about commercial interests driving scientific research.