The robot "Adam" discovered simple but important scientific knowledge about the genome of baker's yeast, a creature that scientists use as a model for a complex living system. The researchers used separate manual experiments to confirm Adam's hypotheses and showed them to be novel and correct.
Researchers funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have created a "robot scientist" they believe is the first machine to independently discover new scientific knowledge. The robot, known as Adam, is a computer system that automatically performs the scientific process. The article will be published in the journal Science.
Professor Ross King, who led the research at the University of Aberystwyth, said: "Ultimately we hope that integrated teams of human scientists and robots will be able to work together in laboratories."
The researchers from Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge designed Adam to perform each step of the scientific process automatically without the need for further human intervention. The robot discovered simple but important scientific knowledge about the genome of baker's yeast, a creature that scientists use as a model for a complex living system. The researchers used separate manual experiments to confirm Adam's hypotheses and showed them to be novel and correct.
"Since the biological organisms are so complex, it is important that the details of the biological experiments are recorded in as much detail as possible. This is difficult and exhausting for a human scientist, but very easy for a robot scientist."
Adam, using an artificial intelligence system, developed a hypothesis according to which several baker's yeast genes code for a specific enzyme that catalyzes biochemical processes in the yeast. The robot performed experiments to test these predictions, using the laboratory's robotic equipment, interpreted the results, and repeated the cycle.
Adam is still a prototype, but Prof. King's team believes that their next robot, Eve, will continue to live up to its promises and has helped the findings develop new drugs to fight diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis - a disease caused by contact with a type of parasitic worm in the tropics.
Prof. King continues: "If science is more efficient, it will be able to help solve society's problems. One way to make science more efficient is through automation. Automation was the driving force behind all developments in the 19th and 20th centuries, and this is how it is expected to continue."
Prof. Douglas Kell, CEO of BBSRC said: "Computers play an important role in the scientific process, which is becoming more and more automated, for example in drug design and DNA sequencing. This has led to more and more scientific data being available online, which in turn requires more and more computing power to analyze the data. The scientist robot can serve as an important tool for managing the abundance of information and knowledge, and this will facilitate and streamline the scientific process. This type of study will become increasingly important as we move forward into the era of Web 2.0 predictive biology and the Semantic Web.
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A robot cannot make scientific discoveries by itself because AI is needed for that, and AI does not yet exist.
What is interesting here is where did the hypothesis that the "robot" decided to test come from?
If it was fed to the robot by a person, then the whole story is not as revolutionary as the title...
If in some process the robot makes assumptions based on things it "sees" (and I really doubt if that's what's happening there), then it's really interesting.
http://ccsl.mae.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/Science09_Schmidt.pdf
http://www.aber.ac.uk/compsci/Research/bio/robotsci/publications/science18.pdf
Link to a recent article on the subject, from Cornell University:
http://ccsl.mae.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/Science09_Schmidt.pdf
Link to a recent article about a similar study from Cornell University -
http://ccsl.mae.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/Science09_Schmidt.pdf
In the last paragraph - it says "take care" but it probably means "task".
Just to link this to the current article - what automation often allows is also the acceleration of the process (because the machines work in many cases faster, do not get tired even if they work at night, do not strike, and the process of their production itself is much shorter than the process of creating and training a human being ).
This is the main purpose of the automation offered here.
For the avoidance of doubt:
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%98%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%94
"Automation (from ancient Greek - 'operating by itself') is the use of mechanical or electronic accessories, in order to perform a series of operations, in a planned sequence, without human contact. Automation frees the person from performing routine and routine tasks, and they are replaced by independent technological means."
student cell:
This is not about condescension.
This is about exerting moderate pressure to act logically when you don't understand a word.
Your preaching of morality, on the other hand, including the psychic analysis is indeed condescending.
Michael, what is this condescension, just interpret the word or write nothing down
You're probably trying to cover up some childhood trauma or something, I won't open it so you don't open another one here
Birch:
A "dictionary" is a book in which the meanings of words are explained.
Babylon is a computerized dictionary that can be purchased and installed to get word definitions at the click of a button.
Nir:
If you are not a prophet then why did you prophesy (response 6)?
Michael (7) - I am not a selfish prophet, nor the son of a prophet, and I have no idea what a child of a day is
In the end these robots will kill all humans!!!
you have been warned
precedents:
battlestar galactica, the matrix and much more
What is "automation"?
Nir:
Are you trying to tell us that next generation computers will be alive?
The computers of the next generation will respectively be called 'Cain' and 'Abel'.
I wouldn't be surprised if 'Cain' murders 'Abel', and then excuses it as a science experiment...
point,
Sometimes I think that was actually the first mistake 🙂 But only sometimes...
Doll makers, of course…
Interestingly, the introduction of CGI into the world of cinema eventually pushed the mare manufacturers out.
Will the entry of computers into laboratories push the scientists?
This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
At least you attribute to him (God) 'something' that is, relate.
Meaning: the concept exists.
Eve was God's second mistake