What exactly are AI scientists? Just a beautiful neural network?
It is not a single neural network, but a set of computer programs that can help scientists make new discoveries. My group has developed algorithms that can help accomplish various tasks, such as weather forecasts, identifying drivers of global temperature rises or trying to find causality, such as the impact of vaccination policies on disease transmission.
Now, we are building a broader “basic” model that is enough to handle multiple tasks. Scientists collect data from various types of instruments, and we want our models to include various data types – numbers, text, images, and videos. We have an early prototype, but we want to make the model more comprehensive, smarter, trained before it is released. This could happen within a few years.
What do you think it can do?
AI can assist almost every step of the scientific discovery process. When I say “AI scientist”, I mean AI science assistant. For example, the literature survey phase in an experiment often requires a large amount of data collection and organizational efforts. But now, a large language model can read and summarize thousands of books during a lunch break. What AI is not good at is judging scientific validity. In this case, it cannot compete with experienced researchers. Although AI can help designs for hypothesis generation, experimentation, and data analysis, complex experiments are still not possible.
How far do you want to see this concept?
When I imagined it, AI scientists could relieve some of the cumbersomeness of researchers while allowing people to deal with the creative aspects of science. That’s something we’re particularly good at. Don’t worry, the goal is not to replace human scientists. I don’t imagine, nor do I want to see – a machine replaces or interferes with human creativity.
ability Reprinted under the permission of Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication Simmons Foundation Its mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and physics and life sciences.
