Science at your service
The White House favors AI-powered scientists over university research
Is AI making it easier for the government to control scientific research? It kind of looks that way.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal covered a US government report which says federal research funding going forward will focus on supporting individual scientists using AI rather than universities conducting research.
Today, Reuters reported on a $5 billion Trump administration project that seems to be part of that initiative. It would task scientists with answering “long-standing scientific problems across multiple fields,” giving them access to AI, along with large, government-owned data sets “including records about chemicals, critical minerals and patient health.”
According to Chief Technology Adviser Michael Kratsios, as paraphrased by Reuters:
The $5 billion research initiative is an opportunity to train AI models on that information and use those algorithms to answer scientific questions.
Setting aside for now the question of whether AI can reliably step in for teams of university researchers, the move seems to be an attempt for the administration to exercise more control over which science gets done, and how. Reuters quotes from the government report: “Federal support for science must be politically accountable.”
I can’t help but read this as: “science must be at the service of government.” If AI gives (or appears to give) individual scientists the capabilities that once required large academic teams, it makes it easier for government to justify a shift away from university-led projects.
The analyses and opinions expressed on AI StopWatch reflect the views of the individual contributors and the sources they cover, and should not be taken as official positions of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.