AI-Boosted Science Platforms

In an Editorial, Vaughan C. Turekian, Executive Director of the Office of International Networks, Cooperation, and Security at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine argues that science is entering a new phase. In an era of vast computational power, automated experiments, and AI, science will increasingly be built around integrated platforms that link data, models, computing, and instrumentation at scale. These platforms are likely to become nodes of scientific capability that structure the scientific enterprise, much as national research programs did in the past. Because of differing governance approaches, and concerns about the strategic and safety implications of AI models, the openness that has heretofore characterized international scientific endeavors at facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider or ITER may not carry forward to these new AI-powered science platforms—at least not in all domains of science. Thus, Turekian argues, a new era of science and technology diplomacy is at hand, in which delicate collaboration agreements are designed to enable science in a landscape of variable access and openness and across different governance regimes. One risk of this emerging world is that scientists without resources or connections will simply be shut out. According to Turekian, decisions made in the next five years about who can access AI-enabled platforms, and how, will shape the geography of global discovery for a generation.