The rise of “intelligent” technology is transforming engineering, industry and the economy at an increasing pace and on an unprecedented scale. At the core of this revolution are breakthroughs in the field of machine learning which allow machines to perform tasks that, until recently, could only be performed by humans. Less prominently discussed, developments in machine learning have the potential to transform science at an equally fundamental level. While machine learning methods have been used in the past to tackle isolated prediction problems, recent breakthroughs open up an exciting new opportunity: Automated inference methods will become increasingly useful in the process of scientific discovery itself, supporting scientists in identifying which hypotheses to test, which experiments to perform, and how to extract principles describing a broad range of phenomena.

Involved Institutions:

• Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM)
• Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme (MPI)