Everyone knows that the Computer--an artificial intelligence (AI)-like entity--on a Star Trek spaceship does everything from brewing tea to compiling complex analyses of flux data. But how are they used at real research facilities? How can AI agents--computer programs that can act based on a perceived environment--help scientists discover next-generation batteries or quantum materials? Three staff members at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) described how AI agents support scientists using the facility's research tools. As a U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science user facility located at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory, NSLS-II offers its experimental capabilities to scientists from all over the world who use it to reveal the mysteries of materials for tomorrow's technology.

In a paper recently published in the open-access journal Energies, researchers reviewed and summarized published articles to determine the most promising approach for artificial intelligence (AI) applications in environmental and energy engineering systems. AI is a computer science tool that works on creating intelligent devices, machines, and systems that carry out operations akin to human decision-making and learning. It can comprehend external data and learn from it, and adapt to its learning with practice. Combining AI with the internet of things (IoT) technologies could be another promising approach as this combination can harvest large amounts of data, and the AI can study data patterns to enable task automation for several business benefits. AI has been widely utilized in agriculture, focusing particularly on rice diseases, crop and pest management, product monitoring, and yield prediction. Medical and healthcare applications of AI include the understanding of diseases such as cancer as well as brain and heart disorders.