Can Computers Do Scientific Research?

Computers have been valuable tools for scientific research since their development in the 1940s. Now, information scientists are developing software tools to tame the information overload in many fields of research science.

AI tries to give computers power to respond accurately and appropriately to changing and novel circumstances, bringing multiple concerns to bear on the problem of making the right choice from a number of alternatives.

Cohen will build on his work at the ISI Center for Research on Unexpected Events (CRUE), which has focused on AI systems for complex data analysis. Cohen has been working specifically in the area of AI analysis of scientific data for years, publishing papers on "Intelligent Assistance for Computational Scientists: Integrated Modeling, Experimentation, and Analysis" ten years ago with work on planning systems going even farther back.

He has also studied the history of science in certain field to try to see patterns in the process of discovery, work that underlies the approach.

In order for AI systems to automate processes and provide assistance to scientists in defining workflows of complex computations, they need to have the world carefully structured and described.

Gil has long been active in developing the semantic web, which creates a digital universe that AI can explore and understand, and which will be a building block of the Windward system.

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This extension of the semantic web may very well represent a breakthrough in the automation of information analysis. Such a system presents opportunities for abuse, and as these dangers become more clear, presumably oversight will keep pace.