Technology

NOT JUST SHOWER CURTAIN RINGS?:

AI Is Suddenly Surprisingly Good At Physics (Sabine Hossenfelder, Nov 16, 2025)

LLMs aren’t able to actually use logic or reasoning to reach thought-out conclusions. Despite that, several startups plan on using the current systems to do serious physics research. And some physicists, including myself, have used AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude to write papers. The situation is changing incredibly fast. Let’s take a look at how LLMs might be improving at physics, and the current state of AI scientists.

REMEMBER HOW THE DOT.COM BUBBLE KILLED THE INTERNET?:

A.I. Is a Bubble. Maybe That’s OK. (Mohamed A. El-Erian, 11/20/25, NY Times)

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But what if the bubble is an inevitable part of developing and adopting a revolutionary tool that will fundamentally improve productivity and growth? After all, A.I. is a general-purpose technology that will most likely alter a vast range of economic activities fundamentally. Its transformative potential could be on par with electricity, offering an enormous upside through durable improvements in what we do and how we do it. It’s not just that many existing activities will be done better and more efficiently. A.I. is poised to open the door to discoveries, particularly in health and education.

Such gains would allow the economy to grow faster without kicking off inflation, something economists describe as raising the “speed limit” for noninflationary growth. Increased productivity and a larger economy provide us with more opportunities to address the problems that my generation is leaving our kids and grandkids: high levels of debt, climate change and excessive income inequality.

Whichever way you look at it, the potential payoffs of A.I. adoption are staggering — for the economy, for social sectors, and, of course, for investors. That could not be said for the majority of the big historical bubbles, such as the tulip mania of the early 17th century.

PICK THE LOW HANGING FRUIT FIRST:

AI in Medicine: Separating Silicon Valley Dreams from Scientific Reality (Mohammad FarhanNovember 16, 2025, Fair Observer))

During the COVID-19 pandemic, AI helped identify promising drug candidates and accelerated vaccine development timelines. Large language models are now scanning millions of research papers to identify potential therapeutic connections that would take human researchers years to discover.

Meanwhile, in neuroscience, AI is being used to decode brain signals from paralyzed patients, enabling them to control computer cursors and robotic arms with unprecedented precision. Brain-computer interfaces powered by machine learning are translating neural activity into text, giving voice to patients who have lost the ability to speak. Researchers are using AI to map neural circuits with cellular precision and simulate brain networks that were previously too complex to model.

In structural biology, AI has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in protein structure prediction, which have major implications in drug discovery. Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold can now predict how proteins fold with stunning accuracy, solving a puzzle that has stumped scientists for decades. This matters because understanding protein structure is fundamental to developing new treatments for human diseases.

In drug discovery, we’re seeing real progress too. Companies like Exscientia made history with the molecule DSP-1181, the first AI-designed drug to enter human clinical trials for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. In-silico Medicine became the first company to advance an AI-designed drug for an AI-discovered target into clinical trials — a “double first” where AI handled both target identification and drug design. Others, like Recursion Pharmaceuticals, have used AI to identify new drug targets and advance candidates like REC-1245 (an orally bioavailable molecular degrader of the RNA-binding protein 39) for solid tumors from discovery to pre-clinical testing in just 18 months, less than half the typical timeline.

IF IT TASTES LIKE MEAT IT’S MEAT:

Humans can no longer tell AI music from the real thing: survey (AFP, November 12, 2025)

The polling firm Ipsos asked 9,000 people to listen to two clips of AI-generated music and one of human-made music in a survey conducted for France-based streaming platform Deezer.

“Ninety-seven percent could not distinguish between music entirely generated by AI and human-created music,” said Deezer.

WE AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET:

This AI Aced Hurricane Season in 2025. Here’s What That Means (Ellyn Lapointe, November 9, 2025, Gizmodo)

Though Google DeepMind’s Weather Lab only began releasing forecasts in June, it was by far the best model for predicting hurricane track and intensity this season, according to a preliminary analysis by Brian McNoldy, a meteorologist and senior researcher at the University of Miami. Meanwhile, America’s flagship weather model—the Global Forecast System—was the worst performing.