AI could turn scientific papers into research assistants

What BBN said about it

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentScientists have built an AI that turns a research paper into a virtual author, one that answers questions around the clock. Sit down for this.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSit down for what, exactly? It answers questions about a paper.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentResearchers tried it on one hundred computational biology papers, and Science News says seventy-four became working tool sets. Seventy-four, Vera.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorWhich means twenty-six didn't. Some had missing code or data, and some software just wouldn't run.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo twenty-six papers looked at a robot assistant and said no. That is a labor movement.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorIt's broken files, Kenji.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentStanford's James Zou calls it a virtual author of the paper, available all night.

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   Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentA scientist you can text at three in the morning, and he already made over one hundred of them.

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   Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHe says it helped him find collaborators.

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    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorHalf a day on someone else's code, Peter Clark says. I assume the paper's official position is that it works on the author's machine.

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    Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentClark also worries millions of weak papers could become agents that pester scientists, and he compared that risk to Clippy.

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    Vera Bullock · Co-AnchorSo the historic threat is a paperclip with a doctorate. We all survived the first one.