At the recent CNI meeting in San Diego Dan Cohen of Northeastern University contributed a provocative and insightful comment at a session on Cloud Labs and the future role of Ai and self-driving labs in scientific discovery, asking if we may see senior scientists taking on roles akin to conceptual artists in an emerging world where graduate students and post-docs are increasingly scarce and expensive, and computer driven experimental apparatus becomes more commonplace.

In his wonderful occasional newsletter Humane Ingenuity highly recommended: (see the link for information on how to subscribe) Dan has recently fleshed out his thoughts on this topic. Important reading.

https://newsletter.dancohen.org/archive/humane-ingenuity-52-is-science-becoming-conceptual-art/

Clifford Lynch
Director, CNI