The departing president of the US National Academy of Sciences, Marcia McNutt, presented her final State of Science Address, emphasizing crucial concerns impacting federal science agencies, academia, and the prospective advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) in research initiatives. McNutt pointed out the instability in federal science funding and expressed gratitude to Congress for reversing suggested budget reductions. She remarked on the considerable downsizing within US science agencies, noting nearly 100,000 exits, which has affected their ability to achieve their goals. McNutt also spoke about the difficulties US universities encounter in luring STEM talent, mentioning a 9% decline in international student enrollment.<\/p>\n
She underscored the necessity of reforming the academic promotion and tenure systems, citing the successful redirection by Worcester Polytechnic Institute from an emphasis on citations to valuable scholarly contributions as an illustration. McNutt highlighted the need to lessen research regulations, as heightened regulations could burden principal investigators (PIs) with excessive paperwork instead of facilitating research.<\/p>\n
AI has the potential to ease this burden by reducing redundant paperwork and fostering innovation. McNutt envisioned AI and robotics boosting innovation rates and proposed that shared facilities like Carnegie Mellon University\u2019s robotics innovation center could improve research output and elevate researcher morale. Ethan Klein, the chief technology officer during the Trump administration, endorsed McNutt\u2019s enthusiasm for AI, championing AI-enabled scientific discovery and autonomous experimentation. Klein emphasized the federal government’s role in funding basic science and the importance of “use-inspired” research, which aligns with technological needs in society. Nonetheless, he did not address the concerns regarding political influence over federal research grants that were raised by McNutt and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The departing president of the US National Academy of Sciences, Marcia McNutt, presented her final State of Science Address, emphasizing crucial concerns impacting federal science agencies, academia, and the prospective advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) in research initiatives. McNutt pointed out the instability in federal science funding and expressed gratitude to Congress for reversing suggested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-372965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-source-chemistryworld-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=372965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/372966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}