Decentring the discoverer: how AI helps us rethink scientific discovery

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Autoren

  • Elinor Clark
  • Donal Khosrowi Djen-Gheschlaghi

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Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer463
FachzeitschriftSYNTHESE
Jahrgang200
Ausgabenummer6
Frühes Online-Datum3 Nov. 2022
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - Dez. 2022

Abstract

This paper investigates how intuitions about scientific discovery using artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to improve our understanding of scientific discovery more generally. Traditional accounts of discovery have been agent-centred: they place emphasis on identifying a specific agent who is responsible for conducting all, or at least the important part, of a discovery process. We argue that these accounts experience difficulties capturing scientific discovery involving AI and that similar issues arise for human discovery. We propose an alternative, collective-centred view as superior for understanding discovery, with and without AI. This view maintains that discovery is performed by a collective of agents and entities, each making contributions that differ in significance and character, and that attributing credit for discovery depends on various finer-grained properties of the contributions made. Detailing its conceptual resources, we argue that this view is considerably more compelling than its agent-centred alternative. Considering and responding to several theoretical and practical challenges, we point to concrete avenues for further developing the view we propose.

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Decentring the discoverer: how AI helps us rethink scientific discovery. / Clark, Elinor; Khosrowi Djen-Gheschlaghi, Donal.
in: SYNTHESE, Jahrgang 200, Nr. 6, 463, 12.2022.

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Clark E, Khosrowi Djen-Gheschlaghi D. Decentring the discoverer: how AI helps us rethink scientific discovery. SYNTHESE. 2022 Dez;200(6):463. Epub 2022 Nov 3. doi: 10.1007/s11229-022-03902-9
Clark, Elinor ; Khosrowi Djen-Gheschlaghi, Donal. / Decentring the discoverer : how AI helps us rethink scientific discovery. in: SYNTHESE. 2022 ; Jahrgang 200, Nr. 6.
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