Science on autopilot: research with AI and robots

In the coming years, the combination of artificial intelligence and robotics will completely change the way science is done, both in basic and applied research. There are already examples today, such as the scientific robots Adam and Eve, capable of formulating hypotheses, conducting experiments, and analyzing the results on their own. But what lies ahead is much more ambitious: autonomous laboratories operating 24 hours a day, connected to each other in different parts of the world, exchanging data in real time, and automatically adjusting experiments without human intervention at every step.

In basic research, this means being able to complete a full cycle of the scientific method in hours or days, from thinking of a question to testing whether the hypothesis is correct. AI and robotics will make it possible to explore areas that are not currently being researched due to lack of time or resources, and could even detect patterns or phenomena that a human researcher would not think to look for. Science will no longer have breaks, because there will be teams that never stop working.

In applied research, the change will be even more visible in everyday life. Drug discovery, for example, could go from taking years to being resolved in weeks, combining generative models that propose molecules with robots that synthesize and test them tirelessly. The same will happen with the development of new materials, industrial enzymes, or biotechnology for food, energy, and the environment. Even personalized medicine will be enhanced, because AI will be able to design unique treatments for each patient based on their genetics and molecular profile, and robotics will be responsible for producing them immediately.

If current trends continue, by 2030 we will see more and more scientific robots publishing papers in prestigious journals. By 2040, there will be global networks of fully automated laboratories, and by 2050 it would not be surprising to see systems capable of creating and testing their own scientific theories, contributing discoveries that change our understanding of the world. Human researchers will continue to be important, but increasingly as those who ask the big questions and validate the interpretation of what the machine discovers.