Towards a Science Exocortex
Name
d4dd00178h.pdf
Size
1.66 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f95abf760bbaa037987918194fbe88e3
Author(s)
Yager, Kevin G.
Date Issued
August 15, 2024
Journal
Digital Discovery
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Citation
Yager, Kevin G. 2024. "Towards a Science Exocortex." Digital Discovery, 3 (10).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) methods are poised to revolutionize intellectual work, with generative AI enabling automation of text analysis, text generation, and simple decision making or reasoning. The impact to science is only just beginning, but the opportunity is significant since scientific research relies fundamentally on extended chains of cognitive work. Here, we review the state of the art in agentic AI systems, and discuss how these methods could be extended to have even greater impact on science. We propose the development of an exocortex, a synthetic extension of a person's cognition. A science exocortex could be designed as a swarm of AI agents, with each agent individually streamlining specific researcher tasks, and whose inter-communication leads to emergent behavior that greatly extend the researcher's cognition and volition.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4DD00178H