Cambridge researcher awarded Schmidt Sciences fellowship to ensure AI benefits society

Cambridge researcher Dr Miles Cranmer is one of 28 researchers worldwide to receive an AI2050 fellowship from Schmidt Sciences, awarded to researchers studying how to fulfil AI's potential to benefit humankind.

The fellows will pursue efforts to solve challenging problems in AI by building AI scientists, designing safer and more trustworthy AI models, and improving the ability of AI to pursue biological and medical research.

The AI2050 programme funds researchers to pursue projects to help AI create immense benefits for humanity by 2050. Twenty-one early-career fellows and seven senior fellows will receive $18 million in funding over the next three years. This marks the fourth cohort of the programme, which now has 99 fellows across eight countries and 42 institutions.

Cranmer is Assistant Professor of Data Intensive Science at Cambridge, jointly appointed between the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and the Institute of Astronomy.

His research attempts to solve a puzzle: AI models trained on physics data sometimes make better predictions than our best theories, but scientists can't see how the AI arrives at its answers. Cranmer and his group develop techniques to distil this knowledge into interpretable theories.

As part of his early career AI2050 fellowship, Cranmer will push these methods to large-scale, general models - ones similar in spirit to large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini - but trained on scientific data rather than text. His goal is to discover new mathematical concepts and physical laws that explain how these AI models achieve their superior predictions.

"AI models trained on physics are finding patterns our theories miss," said Cranmer. "We can see that these models work, but it's not always clear what they're learning. What's more, the larger AI models get, the better they seem to do this! This funding from Schmidt Sciences will help us figure out what they've learned that science is missing."

"AI is underhyped, especially when it comes to its potential to benefit humanity," said Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences with his wife Wendy. "The AI2050 fellowship was established to turn that potential into reality - by supporting the people and ideas shaping a healthier, more resilient, and more secure world."

"In four years, the AI2050 fellows have created a deep sense of community that we are grateful to be able to grow each year," said Mark Greaves, executive director of AI2050."We trust that the network they've created will remain a source of inspiration and support throughout their careers as they advance AI for the benefit of all."

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