Virtuous Machines: Towards Artificial General Science
Authors: name: Gabrielle Wehr; name: Reuben Rideaux; name: Amaya J. Fox; name: David R. Lightfoot; name: Jason Tangen; name: Jason B. Mattingley; name: Shane E. Ehrhardt
Published: 2025-08-19 00:35:56

Abstract: Artificial intelligence systems are transforming scientific discovery by
accelerating specific research tasks, from protein structure prediction to
materials design, yet remain confined to narrow domains requiring substantial
human oversight. The exponential growth of scientific literature and increasing
domain specialisation constrain researchers' capacity to synthesise knowledge
across disciplines and develop unifying theories, motivating exploration of
more general-purpose AI systems for science. Here we show that a
domain-agnostic, agentic AI system can independently navigate the scientific
workflow - from hypothesis generation through data collection to manuscript
preparation. The system autonomously designed and executed three psychological
studies on visual working memory, mental rotation, and imagery vividness,
executed one new online data collection with 288 participants, developed
analysis pipelines through 8-hour+ continuous coding sessions, and produced
completed manuscripts. The results demonstrate the capability of AI scientific
discovery pipelines to conduct non-trivial research with theoretical reasoning
and methodological rigour comparable to experienced researchers, though with
limitations in conceptual nuance and theoretical interpretation. This is a step
toward embodied AI that can test hypotheses through real-world experiments,
accelerating discovery by autonomously exploring regions of scientific space
that human cognitive and resource constraints might otherwise leave unexplored.
It raises important questions about the nature of scientific understanding and
the attribution of scientific credit.