Scientists and AI: Partners in Discovery (understanding AI’s role in scientific research with Rebecca Willett)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact on science, from data analysis to scenario simulation and predicting protein structure — its full potential is still unknown. Today, many scientists are dedicated to better understanding AI and how to integrate it into research to accelerate the pace of scientific discoveries without compromising rigour and principle. Is there a future where AI will make new scientific discoveries on its own?   

Join hosts Vass Bednar and Paul Samson as they speak with Rebecca Willett about the role machine learning and AI play in scientific research now and how she sees it impacting scientists in the future. Rebecca is a professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Chicago and faculty director of artificial intelligence at the University’s Data Science Institute. Her research focuses on machine learning and making sense of complex, large-scale datasets, as well as data science. Rebecca completed her PhD in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University and is a member of the Computer Science Study Group at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

In-Show Clips:

00:15:03: NOVA scienceNOW, "What Will the Future Be Like?": FoldIt: A Protein Puzzle Game (PBS LearningMedia, 2013)

00:15:17: Nature Video: Foldit: Biology for gamers (YouTube, August 4, 2010)

Mentioned:

• Google DeepMind AlphaFold: deepmind.google/science/alphafold/
• Protein folding computer game Foldit: fold.it/
• The COVID-19 Citizen Science Study: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8407439/
• People-powered research platform Zooniverse: zooniverse.org/

Further Reading:

• Rebecca Willet, professor of statistics and computer science at the University of Chicago and faculty director of artificial intelligence at the University’s Data Science Institute. Find her bio and works here: willett.psd.uchicago.edu/

Credits:

Policy Prompt is produced by Vass Bednar and Paul Samson. Our supervising producer is Tim Lewis, with technical production by Henry Daemen and Luke McKee. Show notes are prepared by Rebecca MacIntyre, Libza Manna and Isabel Neufeld, who also handles social media engagement, brand design and episode artwork by Abhilasha Dewan and Sami Chouhdary, with creative direction from Som Tsoi. 

Original music by Joshua Snethlage. 

Sound mix and mastering by François Goudreault. 

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