AI has completely transformed science
Debate about artificial intelligence (AI) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic bias and discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity.
关于人工智能(AI)的争论往往集中在它的潜在危险上:算法偏见和歧视，就业机会的大规模破坏，甚至有人说，人类的灭绝。
As some observers fret about these dystopian scenarios, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards.
然而，当一些观察人士对这些反乌托邦的设想感到担忧时，另一些人则专注于潜在的回报。
AI could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and thorniest problems.
他们声称，人工智能可以帮助人类解决一些最大、最棘手的问题。
And, they say, AI will do this in a very specific way: by radically accelerating the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.
而且，他们说，人工智能将以一种非常具体的方式做到这一点:从根本上加快科学发现的步伐，特别是在医学、气候科学和绿色技术等领域。
Luminaries in the field such as Demis Hassabis and Yann LeCun believe that AI can turbocharge scientific progress and lead to a golden age of discovery.
杰米斯·哈萨比斯和扬·勒昆等领域杰出人士认为，人工智能可以加速科学进步，引领一个科学发现的黄金时代。
Could they be right?
他们是对的吗?
Such claims are worth examining, and may provide a useful counterbalance to fears about large-scale unemployment and killer robots.
这样的说法值得研究，或许可以有效地抵消对大规模失业和机器杀手的担忧。
Many previous technologies have, of course, been falsely hailed as panaceas.
当然，以前的许多技术都被错误地誉为灵丹妙药。
The electric telegraph was lauded in the 1850s as a herald of world peace, as were aircraft in the 1900s;
19世纪50年代，电报被誉为世界和平的先驱，20世纪初，飞机也是如此;
pundits in the 1990s said the internet would reduce inequality and eradicate nationalism.
上世纪90年代的权威人士说，互联网将减少不平等，根除民族主义。
But the mechanism by which AI will supposedly solve the world’s problems has a stronger historical basis,
但人工智能解决世界问题的机制有更强大的历史基础，
because there have been several periods in history when new approaches and new tools did indeed help bring about bursts of world-changing scientific discovery and innovation.
因为在历史上有几个时期，新方法和新工具确实有助于带来改变世界的科学发现和创新。
In the 17th century microscopes and telescopes opened up new vistas of discovery and encouraged researchers to favour their own observations over the received wisdom of antiquity, while the introduction of scientific journals gave them new ways to share and publicise their findings.
在17世纪，显微镜和望远镜开辟了发现的新视野，鼓励研究人员更倾向于相信自己的观察，而不是前人公认的智慧，而科学期刊的引入为他们提供了分享和公布发现的新途径。
The result was rapid progress in astronomy, physics and other fields, and new inventions from the pendulum clock to the steam engine—the prime mover of the Industrial Revolution.
其结果是天文学、物理学和其他领域的迅速发展，以及从摆钟到蒸汽机——工业革命的原动力——的新发明。
Then, starting in the late 19th century, the establishment of research laboratories, which brought together ideas, people and materials on an industrial scale, gave rise to further innovations such as artificial fertiliser, pharmaceuticals and the transistor, the building block of the computer.
然后，从19世纪末开始，科研实验室的建立，将思想、人员和材料以工业规模汇集在一起，催生了人工肥料、药品和晶体管(计算机的基本组成部分)等进一步的创新。
From the mid-20th century, computers in turn enabled new forms of science based on simulation and modelling, from the design of weapons and aircraft to more accurate weather forecasting.
从20世纪中期开始，计算机反过来使基于模拟和建模的新形式科学成为了现实，从武器和飞机的设计到更准确的天气预报。
And the computer revolution may not be finished yet.
计算机革命可能还没有结束。
As we report in a special Science section, AI tools and techniques are now being applied in almost every field of science, though the degree of adoption varies widely:
正如我们在科学专题部分所报道的那样，人工智能工具和技术几乎被应用于当今每个科学领域，尽管采用的程度差异很大:
7.2% of physics and astronomy papers published in 2022 involved AI, for example, compared with 1.4% in veterinary science.
例如，2022年发表的物理学和天文学论文中，有7.2%涉及人工智能，而兽医科学中这一比例为1.4%。
AI is being employed in many ways.
人工智能在很多方面都有应用。
It can identify promising candidates for analysis, such as molecules with particular properties in drug discovery, or materials with the characteristics needed in batteries or solar cells.
它可以识别有潜力的候选物进行分析，比如在药物发现中具有特殊性质的分子，或者具有电池或太阳能电池所需特性的材料。
It can sift through piles of data such as those produced by particle colliders or robotic telescopes, looking for patterns.
它可以筛选大量的数据，比如粒子对撞机或机器人望远镜产生的数据，寻找固定模式。
And AI can model and analyse even more complex systems, such as the folding of proteins and the formation of galaxies.
人工智能还可以模拟和分析更复杂的系统，比如蛋白质的折叠和星系的形成。
AI tools have been used to identify new antibiotics, reveal the Higgs boson and spot regional accents in wolves, among other things.
人工智能工具已被用于识别新的抗生素，揭示希格斯玻色子，发现狼群地区口音等。
All this is to be welcomed.
所有这些都是广受欢迎的。
But the journal and the laboratory went further still: they altered scientific practice itself and unlocked more powerful means of making discoveries, by allowing people and ideas to mingle in new ways and on a larger scale.
但该杂志和实验室走得更远:他们改变了科学实践本身，并通过允许人和思想以新的方式和更大的规模融合，开启了更有力的手段来做出发现。
AI, too, has the potential to set off such a transformation.
人工智能也有可能引发这样的转变。
整理：2024年7月29日于普洱金融培训中心
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