Meanwhile: AI as a scientific colleague, not just a tool

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Meanwhile: AI as a scientific colleague, not just a tool

Published: 03 Feb. 2026, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Han Seon-hwa

The author is an honorary professor at UST and former president of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information.

Nature, an international academic journal, identified “AI for Science” as one of its trends to watch in 2026, signaling that artificial intelligence has begun to intervene actively in the process of scientific discovery. AI is already playing a significant role in laboratories. AlphaFold, an AI system for predicting protein structures, opened vast search spaces through computation in a field that had relied on experiments for decades, an achievement that led to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. It marked the first time AI was formally recognized as a contributor to scientific achievement.

Demis Hassabis, chief executive officer of Google DeepMind, receives the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony held at the Stockholm Concert Hall on Dec. 10, 2024. [NEWS1]

Today, AI is less a tool that rapidly computes correct answers than a colleague that proposes the next question. In materials science it suggests novel combinations, in chemistry it maps reaction pathways and in astronomy it detects signals humans have missed. Nature even views 2026 as the first year in which AI could produce new scientific discoveries without direct human involvement. In that sense, AI has grown from an assistant into a peer.

Yet every new partnership raises new questions. If humans cannot understand results proposed by AI, can they still be called science? When errors occur, where does responsibility lie? What becomes of the scientist’s role in an era when experiments are not directly designed by humans? AI accelerates the pace of research, but it also forces a reexamination of scientific standards and ethics.

These questions do not stop at the laboratory door. AI is now embedded throughout daily life. The issue is no longer how extensively it is used, but the attitude with which humans coexist with it. Rather than accepting AI-generated answers at face value, the capacity to ask why a result emerged and to verify it becomes critical.

Education, therefore, must cultivate the ability to formulate questions rather than merely find correct answers quickly. In everyday decision-making, the principle that humans remain the final agents of judgment and responsibility must not be lost. AI should not replace thinking but expand its horizons. It should function as a companion that widens the space of inquiry, not a substitute that decides in our place. The future of this partnership will depend on the questions humans choose to carry as they walk alongside AI. With curiosity, skepticism and responsibility, AI can deepen understanding without eroding accountability. Without them, speed and automation risk hollowing out the meaning of science itself.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.