Kosmos AI Scientist: In the world of Artificial Intelligence, new models are discussed every week, but some tools emerge that do not just create technical buzz but possess the capability to directly impact the future of science. One such tool is Kosmos, developed by a non-profit research lab named Future House.
This lab is backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, which is why the world's attention is even more focused on this project. Interestingly, Kosmos is being referred to as an "AI Scientist." This means a digital system that can read, think, compare, and arrive at new conclusions, much like human scientists.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also praised it, stating that AI tools like this will bring about the biggest changes in the world going forward.
Kosmos is an AI model designed to accelerate and enhance the accuracy of the scientific research process. While an AI scientist named Robin existed before, its capabilities were limited. Kosmos takes this capability many times further.
Its most significant feature is its ability to synthesise vast amounts of data from various sources to form a coherent and continuous scientific line of thought.
The company claims that Kosmos works towards a single research objective by integrating hundreds of types of information. It maintains focus even when processing millions of tokens of data, a feat that is quite challenging for humans to sustain with such depth and duration.
Sam Altman's reaction to Kosmos adds significant weight to its importance. Altman stated that technologies that will double or triple the pace of scientific research in the future will be similar to this. AI is moving beyond general conversation and is now tackling the truly difficult questions in science, medicine, and mathematics. Kosmos is the first major example of this.
The most discussed aspect in the AI community is that Kosmos replicated research in a single run that took human scientists approximately four months to complete. This implies that if this technology develops in the right direction, scientific discoveries could be made in days and hours, rather than months and years.
It is also noteworthy that Kosmos is not alone. Prior to this, Google had also introduced a model called "AI co-scientist," which assists scientists in formulating hypotheses and experimental plans.
Numerous startups worldwide are now developing AI tools specifically for scientific research. AI is considered the biggest game-changer of the future in fields such as medicine, genetics, and material science.
However, some members of the scientific community remain cautious. They point out that large language models can still make mistakes and sometimes present 'hallucinations,' or fabricated facts. Therefore, these systems must be used with an understanding of their limitations.
Future House states that Kosmos has been made fully "traceable." This means that every conclusion reached by the AI can be verified by tracing it back to the line of code or the specific sentence in a research paper that inspired the AI to draw that conclusion. This is a significant advantage for scientists, as it ensures transparency in research and makes it easier to identify any errors made by the AI.
In testing, Kosmos performed well in several areas, including neuroscience, genetics, material science, and aging research. In addition to replicating previous research, it also proposed four new scientific ideas, which are currently undergoing laboratory investigation.
The most astonishing claim is that a single run of Kosmos can yield results equivalent to six months of work by scientists. If this claim proves true over the long term, it could play a role in the world of science similar to the one computers played in the 1980s.
AI is not here to replace humans but to make their work faster, better, and more accurate. Technologies like Kosmos signal that scientific discoveries in the coming decade will be many times faster than before. Revolutions could occur in medicine, drug development, new energy technologies, and research related to the universe.
