AI cannot automate science – a philosopher explains the uniquely human aspects of doing research

Photo credit: Pavel Danilyuk via Pexels. Article by Alessandra Buccella. The Conversation – January 20, 2026.

Consistent with the general trend of incorporating artificial intelligence into nearly every field, researchers and politicians are increasingly using AI models trained on scientific data to infer answers to scientific questions. But can AI ultimately replace scientists? The Trump administration signed an executive order on Nov. 24, 2025, that announced the Genesis Mission, an initiative to build and train a series of AI agents on federal scientific datasets “to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.” […]

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