AI for Science: The Next Big Opportunity

In 2024, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing an AI model to predict the shape of every protein known to mankind. Chair of the Nobel Committee, Heiner Linke, described the AI system as the achievement of a ''50-year-old dream'' that solved a notoriously difficult problem eluding scientists since the 1970s. This AI system, AlphaFold, has ushered in a golden age of AI for science - the development of AI techniques for accelerating scientific discovery. We are currently amid the largest surge in the application and development of AI for scientific research in history. Scholarly publications, patents, education, training, research activity and investment are increasing at unprecedented rates. AI may help scientists address humanity's greatest challenges such as climate change, pollution, resource scarcity and infectious diseases. In this talk, I will cover the state of practice in AI for science. I'll discuss some of the successes already achieved as well as challenges for applying AI to science in the future. And I'll highlight some of the work at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, which contains over 1000 AI experts developing novel AI solutions to long-standing scientific problems.