Researchers who have been given access to Google’s new AI “co-scientist” tool are enthusiastic about its potential, but it isn’t yet clear whether it can make truly novel discoveries
By Michael Le Page
19 February 2025
Google’s AI “co-scientist” is based on the firm’s Gemini large language models
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Google has unveiled an experimental artificial intelligence system that “uses advanced reasoning to help scientists synthesize vast amounts of literature, generate novel hypotheses, and suggest detailed research plans”, according to its press release. “The idea with [the] ‘AI co-scientist’ is to give scientists superpowers,” says Alan Karthikesalingam at Google.
The tool, which doesn’t have an official name yet, builds on Google’s Gemini large language models. When a researcher asks a question or specifies a goal – to find a new drug, say – the tool comes up with initial ideas within 15 minutes. Several Gemini agents then “debate” these hypotheses with each other, ranking them and improving them over the following hours and days, says Vivek Natarajan at Google.
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During this process, the agents can search the scientific literature, access databases and use tools such as Google’s AlphaFold system for predicting the structure of proteins. “They continuously refine ideas, they debate ideas, they critique ideas,” says Natarajan.
Google has already made the system available to a few research groups, which have released short papers describing their use of it. The teams that tried it are enthusiastic about its potential, and these examples suggest the AI co-scientist will be helpful for synthesising findings. However, it is debatable whether the examples support the claim that the AI can generate novel hypotheses.
For instance, Google says one team used the system to find “new” ways of potentially treating liver fibrosis. However, the drugs proposed by the AI have previously been studied for this purpose. “The drugs identified are all well established to be antifibrotic,” says Steven O’Reilly at UK biotech company Alcyomics. “There is nothing new here.”