As global AI investment accelerates unchecked, chemistry laureate Joachim Frank — visiting Taiwan for the first time in 27 years — tells Storm Media that the technology is stripping humanity of its most essential faculty.
As the global artificial intelligence investment boom accelerates, Nobel laureate in chemistry Joachim Frank is sounding a pointed alarm. In an exclusive interview with Storm Media, Frank warned that while AI is accelerating certain aspects of scientific progress in a supportive capacity, its contributions are being overestimated. More critically, he argued: "AI is stripping us of our creativity — and that will have a devastating impact on culture and civilization."
Frank, born in Germany and holding a doctorate in physics from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), is currently a professor at Columbia University and a leading interdisciplinary figure spanning structural biology, biophysics, and chemical biology. On AI's resource demands, he was equally blunt: "The energy and water consumption of AI data centers is staggering. They are competing with local communities for resources. In some communities, there is simply no water left to use. This will lead to catastrophe."
An Algorithm That Turned Two-Dimensional Images Into Atomic-Resolution 3D Structures
Frank developed the algorithmic framework that became the critical image-processing foundation for cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), enabling scientists to observe the true structures of biological molecules at atomic resolution. The technique computationally reconstructs thousands of two-dimensional electron microscope images taken from different angles into sharp, detailed three-dimensional structures — allowing researchers to observe proteins in dynamic states close to their natural physiological conditions. This capability has made cryo-EM an indispensable tool in modern drug development and life sciences research.
Frank shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson for this work. His first visit to Taiwan was in 1999. This second visit — twenty-seven years later — included a lecture at National Taiwan University on "Cryo-EM: A New Foundation for Molecular Medicine and Drug Design," followed by a session with students at Taipei First Girls' High School, where he answered questions and shared reflections on science and life.
Cryo-EM as a Weapon Against Cancer, Heart Disease, and COVID-19
In his NTU lecture, Frank argued that modern medicine is fundamentally molecular medicine. Early structural biology worked by isolating molecules outside the body and studying their structures to design drugs. But life is not static: molecules inside cells function as precision machinery operating in constant motion. Understanding that complexity required tools capable of capturing molecules in action.
Cryo-EM has become one of those tools — a key weapon, Frank said, against cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19. In the early stages of the pandemic, cryo-EM demonstrated a speed that X-ray methods could not match, allowing scientists to directly visualize the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein within a very short time. That structural insight played a decisive role in vaccine development and in the screening of neutralizing antibodies.
After completing his doctorate in Germany, Frank received a Harkness Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research in the United States. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology provided early inspiration. He went on to develop SPIDER, the image-processing software that classifies and integrates thousands of two-dimensional electron microscope images from different angles and reconstructs them automatically into three-dimensional structures. The approach overcame two longstanding obstacles: the susceptibility of biological samples to damage under electron beams, and the time constraints associated with traditional X-ray crystallography.
'Too Crazy — It Will Never Work'
The greatest obstacles Frank faced were not technical, but institutional. His approach to single-particle reconstruction — the mathematical and computational basis for cryo-EM image processing — predated the development of cryo-EM sample preparation techniques pioneered by Jacques Dubochet. And for years, the scientific establishment did not believe it could work.
"They didn't understand the idea of obtaining structure from single molecules," Frank said. "They were always focused on crystallization — that was the crystallography mindset. They didn't even understand the concept of structure without crystals. At conferences, they said: 'This is too crazy. It will never work.'"
Twelve Years of Struggle, Sustained by Friends and Family
Recognition came slowly. Papers were delayed in publication and eventually appeared in lower-ranked journals. "That painful struggle lasted ten to twelve years," Frank said. "I am grateful to the colleagues and friends around me who believed I would succeed. And I am grateful for the emotional support of my family. That support helped me through the hardest moments."
A further constraint persisted until 2012, when direct electron detectors capable of capturing the true signal from electron microscopes became available, substantially improving image recording quality and making atomic resolution reliably achievable. "Before that, the recording quality was poor," Frank said. "Once everything else was in place — the electron microscope working, high-resolution images obtainable, the mathematics and computing developed — image recording was still the weak link. That didn't change until 2012."
Asked how he maintained confidence while most of his peers were skeptical, Frank pointed to calculation rather than intuition. "The entire technique depends on the ability to align images of the same molecule. You can estimate whether alignment at sufficient resolution is achievable. Through rough calculation, you can determine whether there is enough contrast for high-fidelity alignment between molecules. Calculations I did with colleagues in Cambridge showed it was feasible. That gave us strong confidence to move forward."
Novelist and Poet: The Scientist Who Cannot Stop Writing
Frank's pursuits extend well beyond the laboratory. He has published two novels in English and is currently working on a third, titled Narcissus, set in the year 2060. He also writes poetry and is a keen photographer, using the camera to capture unexpected angles on everyday life. The stories in his fiction, he says, have been accumulating in his mind for decades.
"I need this balance in my life," he said. "After a long stretch of scientific work, I feel unsatisfied and restless. I need to do something else. I cannot find fulfillment in science alone."
Frank credits his father — a judge with an inexhaustible supply of family stories — as an early model. "When he was relaxed and in a good mood, stories would simply pour out of him. Stories about relatives, family, ancestors — connected to each other, often entertaining, sometimes scandalous. I feel I have a similar capacity."
The apparent tension between imaginative fiction and rigorous science, Frank argues, dissolves under closer examination. "The left and right hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other. Different modes of thinking follow different rules: one is serious, systematic, universal; the other is more relaxed, more culturally embedded. They influence each other." Fiction, he adds, can draw on the precise observation of science — and scientific writing can draw on metaphors accumulated across thousands of years of culture.
The Four Greatest Threats Facing the World
Asked to identify the world's most pressing challenges, Frank named four: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, nuclear arms competition, and the generative applications of AI. "The universal goals, language, and methods of science are the only way to address these problems," he said. "But the problem right now is that science cannot exert sufficient influence on domestic and international politics."
On AI specifically, his warning was direct. "AI is a top-down development being pushed onto us by corporations. It is accelerating certain aspects of scientific progress in a supporting role — but its contributions are being overestimated. AI will make a significant contribution to medical diagnostics. But it will also strip us of our creativity, and that will have a devastating impact on culture and civilization."
The resource demands of AI infrastructure, he argued, represent a concrete and immediate harm. "Some communities have signed contracts with AI companies to provide water in exchange for money — and as a result, the communities themselves have no water left. Residents are being forced to reduce how often they bathe. This is happening not only in the United States but in other countries too. I see all of this unfolding. It is deeply irresponsible."
The gravest damage, in Frank's assessment, is to human creativity. "AI generates conformity. Take Google's word-processing system: it offers suggestions to students as they write, and the result is that their expression becomes uniform. That is nothing less than the strangulation of creativity."
What to Leave Behind: Cryo-EM, the Integration of Art and Science
Asked what he hopes to leave to the world, Frank was measured and specific. First, the cryo-EM image-processing technology — the work of a lifetime. Second, an effort to recover the human dimension of science. Third, the integration of art and science. And fourth, encouragement to young people to resist regimes that entrench injustice — "such as the current government in Washington, D.C."
Frank is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Science and the arts are, for him, not competing vocations but complementary expressions of the same human capacity. He is a regular contributor and invited speaker at the Journal of Science, Humanities and Arts (JOSHA), and has called for "a Renaissance spirit that integrates science, the humanities, and the arts — recognizing that while each employs different methods, all draw from the same source: human intelligence and creativity."
On Trump's Washington: Vote Out Legislators Who Won't Listen
Frank has written publicly about his concerns regarding the Trump administration's second term, arguing that appointments in public health and environmental policy are among the most troubling for the country's future. He pointed to deep cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States' withdrawal from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, the appointment of an anti-vaccine advocate to lead a major public health agency, and unprecedented reductions in funding for scientific and medical research.
"In this environment, universities — which have spent centuries cultivating critical thinking and challenging authority — must resist authoritarianism with resolve," Frank said.
He is equally critical of congressional inaction. "Those legislators who will not listen to us should be voted out at the next election."
For young scientists facing sweeping cuts to research funding and grants, Frank's advice was direct: "Young people can go to Europe, or to other countries that still value and support science. Young scientists should hold on — until we restore a democratic government that upholds the rule of law and actually functions."
From a physicist who spent more than a decade fighting for recognition of a technique the scientific establishment dismissed as impossible, to a Nobel laureate, novelist, poet, and outspoken public intellectual, Frank's trajectory reflects a conviction that science, creativity, and democratic accountability are inseparable — and that all three are now at risk.
