For the first time ever, a non-human researcher has made it to Nature magazine’s list of the year’s ten most influential researchers.
The artificial intelligence (AI)-backed chatbot, ChatGPT, has been added to the list, taking this year’s tally to 11.
ChatGPT has dominated headlines and influenced various aspects of science and society, Richard Monastersky, Nature’s editor-in-chief, noted.
It has assisted with writing scientific work, in some cases secretly. Among its many tasks are content creation for presentations, grant applications, programming, and acting as a sounding board for research ideas, according to Nature.
The chatbot’s addition to the top ten acknowledges the profound impact generative AI has on the evolution and progress of science, added Monastersky.
While ChatGPT has been known to ‘hallucinate’ facts and references, its main role has been to stimulate imagination, Nature pointed out.
The potential applications of systems like ChatGPT for future purposes are still unclear, the magazine noted. However, one thing is certain, it argued: the generative AI revolution has started, and there is no going back.
