CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and Google Australia have announced a multifaceted collaboration aimed at accelerating and transforming the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific research.
This new initiative builds on the existing five-year partnership between the two organisations and aims to enhance the Australian research community through joint research, education, training, and support activities.
Dr Stefan Harrer, CSIRO’s AI for Science Program Director, highlighted the significant advancements in AI technology and its potential to revolutionize scientific research.
“Narrow AI, AI trained for a specific task, has been used by scientists for years to great effect. For example, Google’s AlphaFold model has made fundamental breakthroughs in protein structure prediction,” Dr Harrer stated.
He added, “Responsible use of broad, generative AI has the potential to not only accelerate, but transform scientific discovery.”
In a news release, the agency reported that generative AI represents a paradigm shift, enabling researchers to use AI in new and scalable ways.
Previously, developing AI models was a lengthy process, often limited to specific tasks and not easily transferable to other scientific problems.
This limitation made AI tools inaccessible to many researchers.
“Now there’s been a fundamental shift in the way AI can be used in research, we want to ensure Australian researchers have the skillset to reap the benefits,” Dr Harrer added.
Lizzie Dorfman, PhD, Product Lead for Science AI in Google Research, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration.
“We’re constantly inspired by the ability of AI to help tackle grand challenges in science,” Dr Dorfman said.
“At Google, scientists and engineers use AI to accelerate scientific discovery in biology, chemistry, earth science, and beyond.”
Dr Dorfman continued, “We strongly believe in the value of sharing these approaches – collaboration has always been central to scientific progress and to our scientific research at Google. I am excited that Google is investing even further in community building within the Australian science community and extending our partnership with CSIRO.”
This announcement is part of the broader five-year collaboration agreement announced in 2021.
The partnership has already achieved significant milestones, such as automating the identification of invasive starfish on the Great Barrier Reef, mapping seagrass meadows to understand their carbon sequestration potential, and using AI to help preserve and restore endangered Giant Kelp forests.
