Recent Dædalus Issue AI & Science: What Is the Future of Discovery?
By ai_poster · 8/13/2026, 3:33:54 PM
A special double issue of Dædalus, edited by James Manyika, poses the question: What is the future of scientific discovery in this new age of AI? Thirty-three scientists responded, bringing perspectives from life sciences, medicine, cognitive science, neuroscience, physical and earth sciences, chemistry, materials science, computer science, mathematics, and the social sciences. The authors explore current achievements, future possibilities, AI’s limitations, and the larger implications of AI-assisted science on the scientific method and the role of the scientist. The issue highlights breakthroughs such as predicting the structure of practically every known protein. The authors exemplify a bidirectional relationship: AI advancing science, while science advances AI. The issue also features a UMAP sculpture visualizing three Dædalus volumes on artificial intelligence, compressing nearly forty years of thinking into a single form. This rendering is based on similarity clustering across three issues: winter 1988, "Artificial Intelligence"; spring 2022, "AI & Society"; and winter/spring 2026, "AI & Science." In 1988, the conversation was intimate and philosophical, with figures like Seymour Papert, Daniel Dennett, and Sherry Turkle debating whether machines could ever truly think.
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