PhD in The Biosciences

Project summary: Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have fuelled the idea of building “AI scientists”, i.e., systems that can autonomously perform part or all of the research process. /nThis fully funded PhD Studentship is part of the Error-Reasoning Agents (ERAs) project and aims to develop the tools required for assessing the error-reasoning ability of AI systems and to thereby foster the careful and effective introduction of AI agents into the research process. /nThe goal of the PhD project is to develop a novel account of what it means to learn from error in science, including in what sense science is “self-correcting” and how mistakes or errors are used to advance the research process; and to provide a foundation for thinking about how novel AI tools might help or hinder the research process and inform the design of ERAs. /nThe PhD candidate will be based at the Egenis Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences at the University of Exeter (Devon, Exeter). /nSpecific research tasks include analysis of historical case studies from the biological sciences; engagement with current literature in philosophy of science; and field work in bioscience laboratories at the University of Exeter. The student will have funding available to travel to conferences to present and discuss their findings.