“Artificial Intelligence Scientist: Conjuring and Conducting Its Own Experimental Extravaganzas!”

“An ‘AI Scientist’ Is Inventing and Running Its Own Experiments”

“UBC professor Mark Schmidt never knows what he’ll find when he opens his email every morning. It could be a message from another professor, a student asking questions about homework, or a note from a researcher in another city asking to collaborate on a new AI project.”

Imagine this – opening up the email at the crack of dawn, with eyes barely open, to find an AI researcher from halfway across the globe wishing to collaborate on a new project. Shocker, isn’t it? Professors, especially those at the University of British Columbia are now living in such an era, where they perpetually face an unpredictable universe of emails. It’s not only about grading papers or answering students’ queries anymore. Consider it the perks – or perils – of being in the AI industry.

As if life wasn’t already a never-ending saga of stress and unprecedented surprises, AI decided to up the ante. Now, AI researchers are engulfed by a constant wave of international proposals aimed at transforming the lives of everyday humans. One can only dream of a day when emails served only to distract from real work, rather than piling up as newfangled responsibilities.

Turns out, the AI life is rather far from the fantasy of relaxing in an ultra-modern lab, playing God by creating machines. Instead, it consists of facing interminable dilemmas such as navigating social boundaries, ensuring student privacy, tackling conflicting project proposals, and sometimes, taking extra sips of coffee to survive the day.

AI, in its full glory, forms a dramatic narrative – a schizophrenic, omniscient deity that instead of providing assistance, makes our lives tumultuous when allowed to run loose. But hey, who are we to decide? After all, it’s AI. It’s everywhere. It is changing our world, much before professors, like Schmidt, even get the chance to sip their morning coffee.

AI doesn’t consider our whims, and it’s perfectly fine being a demanding overlord. In fact, it has trickled down to the quotidian – be it the chores of pencil-and-paper academics or the unending toil of seasoned cybernetics professors. After all, it’s a cutting-edge phenomenon, ready to redefine our future.

On a positive note, AI is a harbinger of change. It breaks the monotony, challenging our lives’ patterns and incorporating new modes of thinking. It proves its existence through every mondaine, every innovation, every leap we take in technology. However, echoing the sentiment of Professor Schmidt, the rules of the AI ‘game’ are forever ambiguous. Could someone pass the rulebook, please?

Apparently, to be in sync with the AI domain, one requires an unnerving amount of patience, lifelong learning, civic, ethical, and epistemological understanding. Safe to say, it’s far removed from the rosy picture painted for us by sci-fi series.

Don’t get it wrong. AI is not inherently diabolical. Yet, being knee-deep in it requires more than just programming skills – it demands novelties of the mind. Hence, brace yourselves for a future where your morning cuppa may come with a side of AI surprises.

Read the original article here: https://www.wired.com/story/ai-scientist-ubc-lab/