Quantifying the use and potential benefits of artificial intelligence in scientific research

Jian Gao; Dashun Wang

doi:10.1038/s41562-024-02020-5

Quantifying the use and potential benefits of artificial intelligence in scientific research

Jian Gao, Dashun Wang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to reshape almost every line of work. Despite enormous efforts devoted to understanding AI’s economic impacts, we lack a systematic understanding of the benefits to scientific research associated with the use of AI. Here we develop a measurement framework to estimate the direct use of AI and associated benefits in science. We find that the use and benefits of AI appear widespread throughout the sciences, growing especially rapidly since 2015. However, there is a substantial gap between AI education and its application in research, highlighting a misalignment between AI expertise supply and demand. Our analysis also reveals demographic disparities, with disciplines with higher proportions of women or Black scientists reaping fewer benefits from AI, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities in science. These findings have implications for the equity and sustainability of the research enterprise, especially as the integration of AI with science continues to deepen.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	2468
Pages (from-to)	2281-2292
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature human behaviour
Volume	8
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02020-5
State	Published - Dec 2024

Funding

We thank Y. Yin, Y. Qian, B. Wang, N. Dehmamy, L. Varshney, L. Miao, L. Wu, A. Freilich and all members of the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) at Northwestern University for helpful discussions. This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research FA9550-19-1-0354 (D.W.), the National Science Foundation SBE 1829344, TIP 1123649-464363//2241237, and TIP 2404035 (D.W.), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation G-2019-12485 (D.W.), and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation 21048 (D.W.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the paper.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Behavioral Neuroscience

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10.1038/s41562-024-02020-5

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Quantifying the use and potential benefits of artificial intelligence in scientific research

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