Dr. Hadi Fariborzi, PhD, is an assistant professor of innovation and entrepreneurship with MRU's Bissett School of Business. His research inspiration was born out of a love of tea, for which he had consistently heard conflicting findings regarding its health benefits.

"I remember growing up hearing in the news that scientists have found that drinking tea has a positive effect on your gut, your heart, your health. But later, a new group of researchers found the opposite, saying it has a negative effect on health. Then again, a different group said it had positive effects.

Fariborzi remembered, and so when he became a researcher he vowed to search for clarity, which he found through the efforts of cumulative science.

Likening it to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, Fariborzi says cumulative science, in simple terms, is knowledge building upon knowledge, which leads to better overall understanding. Specifically, it is the practice of bringing together the accumulated knowledge and evidence found by scientists in a particular area of study and then collating that once-scattered information into a digestible summary of findings for the general public, and as a foundation for further discovery.

To facilitate the completion of this herculean task, Fariborzi helped create HubMeta, an AI-powered web-based platform to help researchers conduct meta-analysis. HubMeta allows researchers to import large numbers of academic papers, which AI then screens to look for duplicates and studies most similar to the researcher's criteria. Once the papers most fitting to the researcher's question are selected, HubMeta then gathers the data from the papers and presents it in a digestible summary.

Fariborzi says there has been an explosion of knowledge in the past decade, with any single topic potentially the subject of thousands of articles. He states that HubMeta and AI are necessary tools in sifting through that amount of data, completing work in days that would take a human researcher months to complete.

This condensation and simplification of the massive amounts of scholarly evidence is a democratization of science, Fariborzi says. It is a matter of access. With the use of AI, information is no longer locked away and can help people make important decisions in their daily lives, such as how to live healthier lives, for example.

"With AI, I actually have access to the latest research doctors have done everywhere in the world and can really understand how the human body works. How to, for example, set up my personal diet or workout routine, based on the latest research. I don't need a dietician; this could be personalized science at the fingertips of everyone," Fariborzi says.

The potential for AI to inform decision making is not just applicable to personal. Fariborzi believes AI will influence leaders and those in authority at the highest levels, leading to a major restructuring of the world as we know it.

"This is a very exciting time we live in. I understand all the pain and suffering that is happening, but if I can see any light, it is that more and more science is happening. More and more knowledge is being produced. That, in combination with the use of AI, can finally help us find the answers to big questions, like climate change. Maybe we can finally find an end to all wars. Maybe we can finally find the best political system that there can be."

With cumulative science and meta-analysis backed by AI, Fariborzi sees a bright future for everyone.