Vivek Natarajan, a research scientist at Google DeepMind
Vivek Natarajan
Vivek Natarajan is one of the Google DeepMind researchers trying to prove that advanced AI can do more than improve search, ads, and recommendations.His work sits at the center of one of Google's most ambitious bets: that AI can become a collaborator for doctors and scientists, helping diagnose disease, propose experiments, and speed up the search for new treatments.For Natarajan, that mission stems from seeing his father suffer. His dad spent 35 years at a widely read Indian newspaper. Then Parkinson's disease began to change him. While Natarajan was completing a master's degree in the US, his father started showing physical and cognitive symptoms, and his mother took on the role of caregiver. Determined to finish his career on his own terms, his father continued working until retirement, before later passing away.The experience left Natarajan with an urgent focus that has guided his career."I asked this question to myself, 'okay, where is AI going to generally have the most impact?' And to me, that answer felt like medicine and science," Natarajan told me in a recent interview. "That was influenced by what I was seeing in my personal life and with my family."
