AI in Science: Promise and Peril

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Google has launched a new AI tool called Co-Scientist. We hear from one researcher who has tried it out with stunning results. But how much should we trust tools like this - and what are the dangers?

And what about the problem of AI generated text and images? We talk to an ‘image integrity analyst’ who hunts down fake or manipulated pictures in scientific papers.

Finally, the planets of the solar system are coming into an unusual alignment. Astronomer Royal for Scotland Catherine Heymans shares how to glimpse the planetary parade.

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Ilan Goodman, Sophie Ormiston & Ella Hubber Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it.
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0:42.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:45.4	Hello, lovely curious-minded people.
0:50.0	Welcome to Inside Science, a program that was first broadcast on the 27th of February 2025.
0:51.3	I'm Victoria Gill.
0:52.4	And today we are going to delve straight in to a scientific revolution,
0:56.5	artificial intelligence and its transformational role in science. Over the next half hour,
1:01.7	we're going to unravel the power that's promised and the threats that are posed by this
1:05.8	transformational technology. We'll investigate whether AI really solved a major microbiological mystery that had
1:12.8	taken human scientists years to crack in just a few days. And we're examining the bizarre world
1:18.6	of AI fakery and how it's making its way into scientific papers. To navigate all of this,
1:24.4	we have technology expert and science communication lecturer Gareth Mitchell in the studio. Hello, Gareth. Hello. Nice to be here. It's very nice to have you.
1:31.9	And this is right up your street, isn't it? Oh, very much. Oh, very much. Oh, I'm having such a good
1:35.8	program. Yes. You know, because I'm so fascinated by machine learning. I've been reporting
1:40.9	on it for years. I know you have as well, Vic. And I'm fascinated by the way science happens.
	...

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