Ask a Caltech Expert: AI for Science

Computer language processors and computer vision reduce the amount of human power needed to run lab and field experiments; advanced simulations offer deeper insights in astronomy and physics; big data analysis helps identify the best candidates for chemical catalysts and amino-acid sequences for useful new proteins; autonomous vehicles find the best places to collect samples and data.

At Caltech and elsewhere, AI and scientific subject matter experts team up to advance science, engineering, and the field of AI itself. Read on for just a few examples of the seemingly endless possibilities.

Yaser Abu-Mostafa: Can AI Predict Economic Downturns?

"When financial institutions came to researchers asking how AI could be applied to markets, it occurred to me that this was an opportunity not only for finance but also for AI and machine learning proper."

Michael Alvarez and Anima Anandkumar: How Can AI Tools Help Combat Misinformation Online?

"AI gives us an excellent array of tools to do this research at large scale. We've been able to now analyze billions of tweets very quickly, and that wouldn't have been possible before."

Katie Bouman, Matthew Graham, John Dabiri, and Zachary Ross: How Can AI Propel Exploration of the Cosmos, the Oceans, and the Earth?

"AI helps us recognize the signals that we're interested in. First, we train machine learning algorithms to detect different types of signals in data that have been carefully hand annotated. Then we apply our model to the new incoming data. The model makes decisions about as well as seismologists can."

Azita Emami: How is AI Incorporated Into Medical Devices for Personalized Health Care?

"Very quickly we could train algorithms to the baseline of an individual patient and also to other patients. We could then use the devices to predict problems or detect dangerous conditions."

Susanne Hall: How Will ChatGPT and Similar AI Tools Change Teaching and Writing?

"Teaching rhetoric will be even more important than before. These tools can't fully understand the specifics of a rhetorical situation. We are in command of that."

How Is AI Used for Wildlife Conservation?

Video: Pietro Perona and Suzanne Stathatos on Machine Learning for Conservation

"Using your phone, you can grab a picture of this animal or plant and have your phone classify it for you and suggest a number of species that it could be."

Ask a Caltech Expert: Pietro Perona and Sara Beery on Machine Learning for Conservation

"Computer vision gives scientists, policymakers, and conservationists the data they need to make close to real-time decisions about where to allocate resources."

David Van Valen: How is AI Revolutionizing the Biological Sciences?

"Now we're at the point where some of these AI systems perform as well as humans at these tasks. You might do some quality control to make sure the outputs look reasonable, but usually they do, and you can move forward with your studies."

You can submit your own questions to the Caltech Science Exchange.