The MIT team’s method works by taking a compressed representation of a protein and expanding it into a large, sparsely activated space. That makes it easier to see which specific biological features are driving the prediction. Some of the features identified in the study correspond to known protein families and molecular functions, while others align with broader biological categories, such as sensory systems. To make these features easier to interpret, the researchers used a language model to turn complex sequence patterns into plain-language summaries.
This level of visibility, Gujral said, allows researchers to evaluate not only whether a model is correct, but why, helping teams stay involved in the decision-making process. “You might also be able to discard unworthy candidates with human help if your model is interpretable,” he said.
Rosen-Zvi agreed that models that show their work can help engender trust. “Trustworthy AI enables meaningful collaboration between human expertise and machine intelligence,” she said. “It makes biases and limitations in biomedical data and models more visible.”
In domains like drug development, where data is often incomplete and complex, that visibility can improve both internal workflows and external communication. “Transparency around data provenance, openness in methodology and inclusive benchmarking” are all critical, she said.
Scientific rigor is not the only concern. Rosen-Zvi noted that interpretability also plays a social role, making it easier for scientists to communicate model results to colleagues, regulators or funders and to build trust in the decisions that follow.
“It is both a technical and trust challenge,” she said. “In biomedical sciences, this is further nuanced by the field’s dual reliance on mathematical modeling and narrative reasoning.”