Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Will AI ever win its own Nobel? Some predict a prize-worthy science discovery soon

Other researchers question whether autonomous AI scientists are possible or even desirable.
By
  1. Jenna Ahart
Animation of a Nobel prize medal made up of binary code.

Illustration: Adrià Voltà

Artificial intelligence models are starting to succeed in science. In the past two years, they have demonstrated that they can analyse data, design experiments and even come up with new hypotheses. The pace of progress has some researchers convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) could compete with science’s greatest minds in the next few decades.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 646, 276-278 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03223-0

References

  1. Kitano, H. npj Syst. Biol. Appl. 7, 29 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Messeri, L. & Crockett, M. J. Nature 627, 49–58 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Boiko, D. A., MacKnight, R., Kline, B. & Gomes, G. Nature 624, 570–578 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Lu, C. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.06292 (2024).

  5. Alber, S. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.03.657517 (2025).

  6. Vafa, K., Chang, P. G., Rambachan, A. & Mullainathan, S. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.06952 (2025).

  7. Vafa, K., Chen, J. Y., Rambachan, A., Kleinberg, J. & Mullainathan, S. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2406.03689 (2024).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links