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Automated Scientific Discovery: Equation Discovery to Autonomous Discovery Sys.. (arxiv.org)
1 point by mindcrime on May 23, 2023 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: It traces how computer systems grew from fitting simple equations to data toward machines that run whole experiments on their own, grading their independence like self-driving cars. The top grade, level five, means producing scientific knowledge with no human help at all.

Abstract · Automated Scientific Discovery: From Equation Discovery to Autonomous Discovery Systems

The paper surveys automated scientific discovery, from equation discovery and symbolic regression to autonomous discovery systems and agents. It discusses the individual approaches from a "big picture" perspective and in context, but also discusses open issues and recent topics like the various roles of deep neural networks in this area, aiding in the discovery of human-interpretable knowledge. Further, we will present closed-loop scientific discovery systems, starting with the pioneering work on the Adam system up to current efforts in fields from material science to astronomy. Finally, we will elaborate on autonomy from a machine learning perspective, but also in analogy to the autonomy levels in autonomous driving. The maximal level, level five, is defined to require no human intervention at all in the production of scientific knowledge. Achieving this is one step towards solving the Nobel Turing Grand Challenge to develop AI Scientists: AI systems capable of making Nobel-quality scientific discoveries highly autonomously at a level comparable, and possibly superior, to the best human scientists by 2050.

Stefan Kramer, Mattia Cerrato, Jannis Brugger, Sašo Džeroski, Ross King
arXiv:2305.02251 · cs.AI, cs.LG · submitted May 3, 2023 · updated May 26, 2025
abstract · pdf · html · 19 pages plus references

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