Unidentified presenter at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory says AI will change how scientists work; lab to build models to speed experimentation

An unidentified presenter at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory said, "AI is not gonna replace scientists, but it is gonna change the way that we do science," framing artificial intelligence as a tool to reshape research methods rather than a substitute for researchers.

"The work we're doing at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is going to build a series of AI models, and then we're gonna use those AI models to accelerate automation and experimentation," the presenter said, describing a lab initiative to pair AI with laboratory automation to increase experiment throughput and refine experimental design.

The presenter drew a distinction between volume and quality of experiments: "So we're not just doing more experiments, we're doing better experiments. Automation lets us do more experiments. AI lets us do better experiments. When you combine those 2, you get sort of a multiplier effect." The talk emphasized that combining automation and AI is intended to multiply research productivity and insight rather than merely increasing raw output.

The speaker identified biosystems—particularly complex microbial systems and their interactions with their environments—as an area of focus for the effort, and said this work builds on and applies the Department of Energy (DOE) mission to the bioeconomy. The presenter did not specify funding sources, timelines, or concrete deployment milestones.

No formal actions, votes, or funding commitments were recorded in the transcript. The remarks were presented as a description of research direction and priorities at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; next steps, budgets, and schedules were not specified in the provided remarks.