AI scientist claimed to do six months of research in just a few hours

New Scientist 

Could an AI scientist help researchers come up with breakthroughs by analysing data and searching the existing scientific literature? That's the claim of the inventors of Kosmos, but not everyone is convinced Artificial intelligence can process large amounts of data, but can it do science? An AI scientist can work independently for hours while doing research that would take humans months to complete, and has made several "novel contributions" to science, its creators claim - but others are more doubtful. The system, called Kosmos, is actually a collection of AI agents that are specialised in analysing data and searching through the existing scientific literature, in an effort to make new scientific breakthroughs. "We've been working on building an AI scientist for about two years now," says Sam Rodriques at Edison Scientific, the US-based firm behind Kosmos.