TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said at the DBS Asia Future Forward conference in Singapore on October 12 that AI will bring real scientific breakthroughs within the next two to three years, naming four fields: physics, biotechnology, chemistry and materials science.
Key points:
A specific timeline of 2-3 years: Chew said: “In the next two to three years we will see real scientific breakthroughs: physics, biotech, chemistry, materials science. Because of AI, everything is possible.” He thinks people may overestimate AI's short-term impact but badly underestimate its long-term potential. “We are only at the beginning of what AI can do,” he said, adding that development is on a very steep curve.
ByteDance is also moving into AI for Science: In April this year, ByteDance's Seed research team released Protenix-v2, a model for biomolecular structure prediction and design, entering the field of drug discovery. Chew said ByteDance is exploring collaboration with scientists, using its in-house models to support scientific progress.
Prosperity and warnings together: He also warned that cybersecurity risks rise as autonomous agents become widespread, since users may give AI agents excessive permissions without fully understanding the consequences. Alignment is a question that must be answered: “How do you get models to do the things that are obvious to humans?”
Commentary: From Altman's “singularity” talk and Jensen Huang's optimism to Nadella's “emergency stop switch” and Chew's “scientific breakthroughs plus alignment warning”, the giants are splitting into two camps on one question: how fast can this go versus how steady should it be. And the 2-3 year timeline subtly echoes the Anthropic CEO's earlier prediction that “AI will be smarter than Nobel laureates”, as well as the State of AI Report 2026 judgment that “AGI may arrive in 2027”.
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