Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt Bets AI Will Shake Up Scientific Research

Eric Schmidt is funding a nonprofit that's focused on building an artificial intelligence-powered assistant for the laboratory, with the lofty goal of overhauling the scientific research process. From a report: The nonprofit, Future House, plans to develop AI tools that can analyze and summarize research papers as well as respond to scientific questions using large language models -- the same technology that supports popular AI chatbots. But Future House also intends to go a step further. The 'AI scientist,' as Future House refers to it, will one day be able to sift through thousands of scientific papers and independently compose hypotheses at greater speed and scale than humans, Chief Executive Officer Sam Rodriques said.

A growing number of businesses and investors are focusing on AI's potential applications in science, including uncovering new medicines and therapies. While Future House aims to make breakthroughs of its own, it believes the scientific process itself can be transformed by having AI generate a hypothesis, conduct experiments and reach conclusions -- even though some existing AI tools have been prone to errors and bias. Rodriques acknowledged the risks of AI being applied in science. 'It's not just inaccuracy that you need to worry about,' he said. There are also concerns that 'people can use them to come up with weapons and things like that.' Future House will 'have an obligation' to make sure there's safeguards in place,' he added.

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