New Book Explores Promise and Perils of AI for Scientific Community

Exploring the Promise and Perils of AI in Science

In late 2022, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot capable of generating conversational responses, analyses, and even images based on user prompts. This innovation, powered by advanced computational techniques like large language models, was trained on an extensive dataset of human-created and curated content, including scientific literature. Since its release, concerns about AI potentially surpassing human intelligence have become increasingly prevalent.

A new collection of essays titled Realizing the Promise and Minimizing the Perils of AI for Science and the Scientific Community (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) delves into the historical, ethical, and practical dimensions of AI. This volume offers a comprehensive overview of AI frameworks and principles, while also assessing the current advancements, challenges, and future potential of AI technologies.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to AI

The book features contributions from a diverse group of experts spanning behavioral and social sciences, ethics, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science. It also includes insights from leaders in higher education, law, governance, and science communication. Together, these essays emphasize the importance of maintaining science’s core norms and values, even as technology evolves. The contributors advocate for principles such as human accountability, transparency, ethical considerations, and public engagement when integrating AI into scientific research.

The volume underscores the need for transparent disclosure and attribution of AI-generated data, rigorous verification processes, and continuous oversight. It also highlights the importance of equity and ethics in AI applications, ensuring that these technologies serve humanity responsibly and inclusively.

The Editors Behind the Vision

This collection of essays emerged from a series of retreats held in 2023-24, organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The editors of the volume are:

• Kathleen Hall Jamieson: Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
• William Kearney: Executive Director of the Office of News and Public Information and Editor of Issues in Science and Technology at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
• Anne-Marie Mazza: Senior Director of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law and Senior Advisor of the Policy and Global Affairs Division at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Challenges in the Age of Generative AI

In the book’s concluding chapter, “Safeguarding the Norms and Values of Science in the Age of Generative AI,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Marcia K. McNutt, President of the National Academy of Sciences, address the unique challenges AI poses to scientific norms. They emphasize the importance of accountability and transparency, which are essential for replicability in science. However, they note that AI systems, particularly data-intensive ones, often operate as “black-box” systems, making it difficult to determine accountability.

“Governments around the globe have instituted structures to monitor and oversee the development of generative AI,” write McNutt and Jamieson. “It is both appropriate and necessary that the scientific community and the disciplines within it do the same.”

Contributors to the Volume

The book features essays from a distinguished group of contributors, including:

• Marc Aidinoff, Assistant Professor of the History of Technology, Harvard University
• David Baltimore, Distinguished Professor of Biology, Caltech
• Wolfgang Blau, Managing Partner, Global Climate Hub Brunswick Group
• Vinton Cerf, VP & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
• Juan Enriquez, Managing Director, Excel Venture Management
• Joseph Francisco, President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
• Urs Gasser, Professor of Public Policy, Governance, and Innovative Technology, and Dean of the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology at the Technical University of Munich
• Mary L. Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society
• Mark Greaves, Executive Director, AI20250, Schmidt Futures
• Barbara Grosz, Higgins Research Professor of Natural Sciences, Harvard SEAS
• Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Program Director, The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands; Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center; Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Gerald Haug, President Leopoldina
• John Hennessy, President Emeritus, Stanford University, and Chairman, Alphabet Inc.
• Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer, Microsoft
• David Kaiser, Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jared Katzman, Ph.D. Student, University of Michigan
• William Kearney, Executive Director, Office of News and Public Information, National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
• Alex John London, K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies and Director of the Center for Ethics and Policy, Carnegie Mellon University; Chief Ethicist at the Block Center for Technology and Society, Carnegie Mellon University
• Robin Lovell-Badge, Principal Group Leader and Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute
• Anne-Marie Mazza, Senior Director, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
• Marcia McNutt, President, National Academy of Sciences
• Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University
• Tom Mitchell, Founders University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University
• Susan Ness, Former Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
• Shobita Parthasarathy, Professor of Public Policy and Women’s and Gender Studies and Co-Founder and Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, University of Michigan
• Saul Perlmutter, Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Professor, University of California Berkeley
• William H. Press, Leslie Surginer Professor of Computer Science and Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin

Availability

Realizing the Promise and Minimizing the Perils of AI for Science and the Scientific Community will be available in paperback for $34.95 (ISBN 978-1-5128-2748-4) and as a free eBook download (ISBN 978-1-5128-2747-7) from the University of Pennsylvania Press in November 2024.