AI Agents Now Serve as Research Assistants While Scientists Develop Collaborative Systems Mimicking Medical Teams
Summary
AI agents powered by large language models now assist scientists with research tasks like data curation and literature reviews, while new collaborative systems mimic medical teams to analyze drug trials and identify unexpected therapeutic effects, though current technology still requires human oversight due to reliability limitations.
Key Points
- AI agents use large language models to perform multi-step research tasks by connecting to external tools like browsers and coding suites, with researchers already deploying them as research assistants for data curation, literature reviews, and code writing
- Scientists are developing collaborative AI agent systems that mimic multidisciplinary teams, such as Microsoft's AI tumor board and drug discovery platforms that analyze clinical trial data to identify unexpected protective effects of existing medications
- Current AI agents remain limited and prone to hallucinations, requiring significant human oversight, though researchers are creating tools like ToolUniverse to make agent technology more accessible to scientists without coding expertise