I agree that if the AI can run its own experiments (via robotic actuators) it can do R&D prototyping independently of existing private/corporate data, and that’s potentially the whole game.
My current impression is that, as of 2024, we’re starting to see enough investment into AI-controlled robots that in a few years it would be possible to get an “AI experimenter”, albeit in the restricted set of domains where experiments can be automated easily. (biological experiments that are basically restricted to pipetting aqueous solutions and imaging the results? definitely yes. most sorts of benchtop electronics prototyping and testing? i imagine so, though I don’t know for sure. the full range of reactions/syntheses a chemist can run at a lab bench? probably not for some time; creating a “mechanical chemist” is a famously hard problem since methods are so varied, though obviously it’s not in principle impossible.)
I agree that if the AI can run its own experiments (via robotic actuators) it can do R&D prototyping independently of existing private/corporate data, and that’s potentially the whole game.
My current impression is that, as of 2024, we’re starting to see enough investment into AI-controlled robots that in a few years it would be possible to get an “AI experimenter”, albeit in the restricted set of domains where experiments can be automated easily. (biological experiments that are basically restricted to pipetting aqueous solutions and imaging the results? definitely yes. most sorts of benchtop electronics prototyping and testing? i imagine so, though I don’t know for sure. the full range of reactions/syntheses a chemist can run at a lab bench? probably not for some time; creating a “mechanical chemist” is a famously hard problem since methods are so varied, though obviously it’s not in principle impossible.)