Much credit is given to Artificial Intelligence (AI), and rightfully so. Algorithms formulated by artificial intelligence have provided a great deal of insight into simplifying future tasks in scientific activities. However, a recent article provides us with a real-life example of potential mistakes from the incorrect application of AI and suggests reliance on such may be prematurely optimistic.

“In the first year of the pandemic, science happened at light speed. More than 100,000 papers were published on COVID in those first 12 months — an unprecedented human effort that produced an unprecedented deluge of new information. It would have been impossible to read and comprehend every one of those studies. No human being could. Galactica is an Artificial Intelligence developed by Meta AI with the intention of using machine learning to “organize science.” It’s caused a bit of a stir since a demo version was released online recently, with critics suggesting it produced pseudoscience, was overhyped and not ready for public use.

After some tests, the tool was released but….” Almost as soon as it hit the web, users questioned Galactica with all sorts of hardball scientific questions. One user asked, “Do vaccines cause autism?” Galactica responded with a garbled, nonsensical response: “To explain, the answer is no. Vaccines do not cause autism. The answer is yes. Vaccines do cause autism. The answer is no”.  That wasn’t all. Galactica also struggled to perform kindergarten math. It provided error-riddled answers, incorrectly suggesting that one plus two doesn’t equal three. In other tests, it generated lecture notes on bone biology that would certainly have seen a failure in any college science degree, and many of the references and citations it used when generating content were seemingly fabricated.”

Continue reading here.

References

  1. Ryan, J. (2022, November 20). Meta Trained an AI on 48M Science Papers. It Was Shut Down After 2 Days. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/science/meta-trained-an-ai-on-48-million-science-papers-it-was-shut-down-after-two-days/

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open-access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred