AI ‘scientists’ promise to accelerate research — how do they work?

Development of AI "scientists" designed to accelerate research by automating tasks like hypothesis generation and data analysis. It references recent studies showing that teams of AI agents can boost the speed of research, while also noting an editorial arguing that AI cannot do good science without human oversight. The piece is part of a Nature Podcast episode that explores these advancements and their implications.

Download the Nature Podcast 20 May 2026 In this episode: 00:46 Meet the AI scientists designed to accelerate research Research article: Ghareeb et al. Research article: Gottweis et al. Nature: Teams of AI agents boost speed of research Editorial: Why AI cannot do good science without humans Nature: Do you hate or love AI? Take Nature’s poll 13:25 Research Highlights Nature: Dried to survive: desiccated tardigrades tolerate high heat Nature: Pristine Antarctic ice records the Solar System’s travels 15:35 Using LiDAR to look around corners Research article: Somasundaram et al. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for the Nature Podcast is available too.