Have we entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery? 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Cutting through the hype reveals what’s actually possible ⏸ AI can sift data and design experiments — but can it truly create new ideas? It’s abilities are still up for debate. Outlanders Design By Kathryn Hulick 9 hours ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) A robot named Adam was the first of its kind to do science. Adam mimicked a biologist. After coming up with questions to ask about yeast, the machine tested those questions inside a robotic laboratory the size of a small van, using a freezer full of samples and a set of robotic arms. Adam’s handful of small finds, made starting in the 2000s, are considered to be the very first entirely automated scientific discoveries. Now, more powerful forms of artificial intelligence are taking on significant roles in the scientific process at research laboratories and universities around the world. The 2024 Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics went to people who pioneered AI tools. It’s still early days, and there are plenty of skeptics. But as the technology advances, could AI become less like a research tool and more like an alien type of scientist? Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. “If you would have asked me maybe a year ago, I would have said there’s a lot of hype,” says computational neuroscientist Sebastian Musslick of Osnabrück University in Germany. Now, “there are actually real discoveries.” Mathematicians, computer scientists and other researchers have made breakthroughs in their work using AI agents, such as the one available through OpenAI’s ChatGPT. AI agents actively break down your initial question into a series of steps and may search the web to complete a task or provide an in-depth answer. At drug companies, researchers are developing systems that combine agents with other AI-based tools to discover new medicines. Engineers are using similar systems to discover new materials that may be useful in batteries, carbon capture and quantum computing. But people, not robots like Adam, still fill most research labs and conferences. A meaningful change in how we do science “is not really happening yet,” says cognitive scientist Gary Marcus of New York University. “I think a lot of it is just marketing.” Right now, AI systems are especially good at searching for answers within a box that scientists define. Rummaging through that box, sometimes an incredibly large box of existing data, AI systems can make connections and find obscure answers. For the large language models, or LLMs, behind chatbots and agents like ChatGPT, the box of information is a staggeringly huge amount of text, including research papers written in many languages. But to push the boundaries of scientific understanding, Marcus says, human beings need to think outside the box. It takes creativity and imagination to make discoveries as big as continental drift or special relativity. The AI of today can’t match such leaps of insight, researchers note. But the tools clearly can change the way human scientists make discoveries. AI as a research buddy Alex Lupsasca, a theoretical physicist who studies black holes, feels that he has already glimpsed the AI-driven future of scientific discovery. Working on his own at Vanderbilt University in N
Have we entered a new age of AI-enabled scientific discovery?
