Scientists Say Google's "AI Scientist" Is Dead on Arrival

Is Google's so-called "AI co-scientist" poised to revolutionize scientific research as we know it? Not according to its human colleagues. The Gemini 2.0 based tool, announced by Google last month, can purportedly come up with hypotheses and detailed research plans by using "advanced reasoning" to "mirror the reasoning process underpinning the scientific method." This process is powered by multiple Gemini "agents" that essentially debate and bounce ideas off each other, refining them over time. The yet-unnamed tool would give scientists "superpowers," Alan Karthikesalingam, an AI researcher at Google, told New Scientist last month. And even biomedical researchers at Imperial College London, who got to use an early version of the AI model, eagerly claimed it would "supercharge science." But the superlative-heavy hype seems to be just that: hype. "This preliminary tool, while interesting, doesn't seem likely to be seriously used," Sarah Beery, a computer vision researcher at MIT, told ... Read full article.