Science in the age of AI

“Let’s go back — way, way back to 2023.” That was the invitation issued by OpenAI’s vice president for science, Kevin Weil, during his opening remarks highlighting the rapid advances of large language models in research during a recent Virginia Tech Leaders+ event at the university’s Academic Building One in Alexandria.

From 2023-26, Weil said, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered large language models have progressed from being able to garner a respectable score on the math portion of the SAT to being able to solve peer-review-research level problems in mathematics.

As that trajectory continues, how will AI not only gain progressive abilities in mathematics, but become a key research tool in all sorts of fields that are a focus of scientists at top institutions around the world?

“Accelerated by AI, I think we’re going to find that we’re going to be doing the science of 2050, but in 2030 instead,” Weil said. “I find that to be incredibly exciting.”

The transformative potential of new tools was the emphasis of Science in the Age of AI, an event attended by more than 150 researchers, graduate students, and other members of the scientific and industry communities on March 10.

Weil, whose company developed ChatGPT, joined Rishi Jaitly, founder of the university’s Institute for Leadership in Technology, for a facilitated discussion and audience questions. University President Tim Sands welcomed Weil and affirmed the importance of convening representatives from academic, industry, and government in the backyard of the nation’s capital and across Virginia Tech’s innovation network.

“Our goal is greater than simply producing talent and technology,” Sands said. “It is our responsibility as a university to ask deeper questions. How do we ensure innovation benefits society? How do we train students to think critically about the tools they build? And how do we bring scientists, humanists, policymakers, and industry leaders together to guide these advancing technologies in ways that reflect our shared values? Those questions are central to the work happening across Virginia Tech today. They are also why conversations like this one matter so much.”

Weil highlighted innovative uses of OpenAI’s GPT-5.2 in research within mathematics, physics, and life sciences to address previously unanswered research questions. Though conceding that employing AI in research has complications, such as the need to carefully verify the answers it provides, he expressed confidence that it would soon be as widely adopted in scientific research as it has already become in other fields, such as software engineering.

“Take yourself back to the beginning of 2025 and if you were using an AI agent to write most of your code, kudos to you, you were an early adopter,” Weil said. “But if you fast forward just 12 months, by the end of 2025 if you were not using an AI agent to write most of your code you were falling behind.”

He added: “AI gives scientists superpowers. The models are getting really good. They can do a lot of things that you can’t, but you’re also better at doing a lot of things than they are. They are like a power tool that can be guided by your intuition, your judgement, your taste.”

Weil spotlighted several scientific papers that demonstrate how AI is already being integrated into published research, and also took questions that dove into some of the challenges AI represents to scientific norms, such as whether a program like ChatGPT should be listed as an author on papers.

Virginia Tech’s prominent role bringing together thought leaders for discussions of technologies that are changing the world will be on display, once again, in May, in an event focused on the impact of data centers.

“Moments like this remind us how important it is to create spaces where higher-ed, industry and government can come together to discuss the next frontiers of research and talent, to learn from one another, and to create partnerships with purpose,” Brandy Salmon, the university’s vice president for innovation and partnerships, whose team organizes the thought-leader gatherings, said at the conclusion of the March 10 event. “Convening conversations like this is very much part of Virginia Tech’s ethos as a global land-grant university.