Babbage: AI: The end of the scientific method?

The Economist Podcasts

• Episode: Babbage: AI: The end of the scientific method?
• Website: The Economist Podcasts
• Feed URL: https://rss.acast.com/theeconomistallaudio
• Duration: 00:22:40
• Published: 2019-11-27 18:55

Researchers are using artificial intelligence techniques to invent medicines and materials—but in the process are they upending the scientific method itself? The AI approach is a form of trial-and-error at scale, or “radical empiricism”. But does AI-driven science uncover new answers that humans cannot understand? Host Kenneth Cukier finds out with James Field of LabGenius, Demis Hassabis of DeepMind, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, tech venture capitalists Zavain Dar and Nan Li, philosophy professor Sabrina Leonelli, and others.

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