Can AI be my new lab partner?

Artificial intelligence is changing many aspects of our lives, but some of its most exciting possibilities are happening in the world of science. There have been lots of headlines about how artificial intelligence could transform this area, including curing disease, suggesting new drugs, and generating hypotheses at a speed no human could replicate.

AI has been behind real scientific breakthroughs; it’s also running experiments round the clock in new autonomous labs, and even “AI scientists” are beginning to emerge. So, Aleks and Kevin explore what happens when AI becomes part of the scientific process – could it be your new lab partner?

Charlotte Deane, Professor of Structural Bioinformatics at the University of Oxford, and Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, explains how AI has already changed the way she works in drug discovery, and how much further the technology could take us.

But if an AI helps make a groundbreaking discovery, who gets the credit and who owns it? Physician-scientist, lawyer and author Ryan Abbott tells us what AI-generated discoveries could mean for patents and ownership.

Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Rachael O'Neill
The Artificial Human is a BBC Audio Scotland Production for Radio 4.