Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can generate plausible, entertaining, and scientifically interesting titles for potential research articles, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ. A study of The BMJ's most popular Christmas research articles--which combine evidence based science with light hearted or quirky themes--finds that AI generated titles were as attractive to readers but that, as in other areas of medicine, performance was enhanced by human input. As such, the researchers say AI could have a role in generating hypotheses or directions for future research. AI is already used to help doctors diagnose conditions, based on the idea that computer systems can learn from data and identify patterns. But can AI be used to generate worthwhile hypotheses for medical research?