URI Researcher Examines How AI Is Changing the Language of Science – College of the Environment and Life Sciences
https://web.uri.edu/cels/news/ai-is-changing-the-language-of-science/
Publish Date: 2026-05-04 20:09:00
Source Domain: web.uri.edu
- Nic Fisk, a computational biologist, highlights a shift in scientific writing where researchers increasingly attribute findings to computational systems instead of themselves.
- This linguistic change raises questions about accountability and responsibility in scientific practice, suggesting a relocation of responsibility from researchers to computational tools.
- Fisk’s research, which includes an analysis of over 20 million scientific abstracts, shows that this shift began around 2016 and accelerated with the rise of AI and machine learning tools in research.
- Across various conferences and projects, Fisk emphasizes the importance of understanding scientific agency and the implications of language on how responsibility is assigned in scientific work.
- Fisk’s work also illustrates broader themes on how academic norms shape the assignment of meaning and agency to subjects of study, highlighting the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in clarifying implicit assumptions.
- The emerging themes suggest that language used in scientific discourse, such as whether to say “we found” or “the model found,” fundamentally determine who is held responsible for scientific discoveries.
- Ultimately, Fisk argues that scientific identity is defined more by the questions researchers ask than by their technical skills, reinforcing the communal and human aspects of science.
