Artificial intelligence is making revolutionary changes in the scientific world, with some scientists working towards creating an “AI-enabled scientist” that could win a Nobel Prize by the year 2050. The question arises, can artificial intelligence win a Nobel Prize? Experts have answered.
While AI technology transforms many sectors from banking to finance, film to journalism, scientists continue their efforts to create an “AI Scientist” capable of winning a Nobel Prize by 2050. Japanese scientist Hiroaki Kitano proposed the “Nobel Turing Challenge” in 2021, inviting researchers to create an AI work that could win a Nobel Prize. Some scientists are intensively pursuing this goal.
Scientists providing their views to the French news agency AFP evaluated how AI could shape science. Ross King from Chalmers University mentioned that they have developed around 100 “robot scientists,” introducing “Robot Scientist Adam” with his team in 2009. King stated, “We built a robot that could independently generate new scientific discoveries, come up with original scientific ideas, and test them.” The robot autonomously formulates hypotheses and designs experiments to test them. King said that the robot named “Adam” discovered unknown “gene functions” by investigating yeast’s internal workings. Subsequently, their second robot named “Eve” was tasked with examining drug candidates for malaria and other tropical diseases.
King highlighted that robot scientists reduce costs, keep more meticulous records by working around the clock, and admitted that to be worthy of a Nobel Prize, they need to develop systems that are much more intelligent and capable of understanding the bigger picture.
Associate Professor Inga Strumke from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology stated that the science profession is safe for now, but it is evident that AI will have an impact on how science is carried out. She mentioned that AI models like AlphaFold, developed by Google DeepMind, are used to predict protein structures by performing complex calculations. While finding the protein structures predicted by AlphaFold “extremely valuable,” Strumke noted that these discoveries do not provide much information about microbiology.
John Jumper and Demis Hassabis, executives from Google DeepMind, were awarded the Lasker Award in 2023 and are among the prominent candidates for the 2024 Chemistry Award selected by the Clarivate analytics group.
David Pendlebury stated, “In the next decade, we will see AI-supported Nobel Prizes.”