CSIRO and Google Australia have enhanced their existing five-year partnership with another collaboration to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in science.
The partnership ‘amendment’ will see the Australian research community be able to leverage Google Australia’s expertise in using AI across a variety of activities, including research, education, training and support.
CSIRO’s AI for Science Program Director, Dr Stefan Harrer, said the new collaboration comes at a time where the use of and access to AI has evolved monumentally, especially with the entrance of generative AI.
“Narrow AI, AI trained for a specific task, has been used by scientists for years to great effect. For example, Google’s AlphaFold model has made fundamental breakthroughs in protein structure prediction,” he said.
“Responsible use of broad, generative AI has the potential to not only accelerate, but transform scientific discovery.
“Now there’s been a fundamental shift in the way AI can be used in research, we want to ensure Australian researchers have the skillset to reap the benefits.”
The five-year partnership was first announced in 2021, and has since automated the identification of invasive starfish on the Great Barrier Reef, is identifying and mapping seagrass meadows to better understand their carbon sequestration potential, and is using AI to help preserve and restore endangered Giant Kelp forests.
“We’re constantly inspired by the ability of AI to help tackle grand challenges in science,” Lizzie Dorfman, PhD, Product Lead for Science AI in Google Research, said.
“At Google, scientists and engineers use AI to accelerate scientific discovery in biology, chemistry, earth science and beyond.
“We strongly believe in the value of sharing these approaches – collaboration has always been central to scientific progress and to our scientific research at Google.
“I am excited that Google is investing even further in community building within the Australian science community and extending our partnership with CSIRO.”
