Augmenting Scientific Discovery with AI

The 2026 Gibbons Lecture Series theme is Augmenting Scientific Discovery with AI.

Overview: Artificial intelligence is increasingly transforming how scientific knowledge is generated, tested, and applied. This seminar series explores how AI methods, ranging from machine learning and data-driven modelling to autonomous agents and decision-support systems, can augment scientific discovery across disciplines. We will examine how AI can accelerate hypothesis generation, enable the analysis of complex and large-scale data, and support more efficient and reproducible research workflows, while keeping human expertise firmly in the loop. Through a mix of methodological insights and real-world case studies, the series will highlight both the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into scientific practice, with particular attention to co-design, transparency, reliability, and responsible use.

Tuesday 12 May 2026
Talk title: AI as a Driver of Science: Making Sense of the Environmental Fate of Chemicals

Speaker: Dr Jörg Wicker, School of Computer Science, University of Auckland

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is becoming a core part of how science is done. In many fields, the systems we want to understand are too complex, too varied, and too large for progress to come from experiments alone. AI is needed not just to speed things up, but to make sense of scientific problems that do not scale in any other way.

This is especially true for the environmental fate of chemicals. Once released into the environment, chemicals are transformed by microbes through sequences of reactions that depend on structure, context, and
biological activity. The number of possible chemicals and transformation pathways is vast, and no realistic amount of experimentation can map them all. Making progress requires models that can generalise from limited data and reason across many possible outcomes.
enviPath emerged from this need. Built on years of research in environmental chemistry and machine learning, enviPath uses AI models trained on experimental biodegradation data and chemical structure to predict multi‑step transformation pathways, rather than isolated reactions. Here, AI is not simply a convenience - it is what allows the science to move beyond individual cases to systematic understanding. Explicitly handling uncertainty, model limits, and incomplete knowledge is a central part of this approach.
Developed in New Zealand, this work evolved from academic research into a platform now used by researchers, regulators, and industry, and also led to the creation of a spin‑out company. The enviPath story shows how AI4Science can enable scientific progress at a scale that would not be achievable otherwise.

Tuesday 19 May 2026
Talk title: How does Artificial Intelligence Differ from Natural Intelligence?

Speaker: Dr Matthew Egbert, School of Computer Science, University of Auckland

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a remarkable pace and it can be tempting to think that machines are on the verge of human-like thought. But I believe that there are major, categorical differences between AI systems and living minds.
For example, AI systems and living organisms can both solve problems, but only living systems have problems of their own to solve.

Animals, humans, and even bacteria are self-maintaining systems whose needs, purposes, and concerns arise from within their own way of being alive. AI systems, on the other hand, act as if they have concerns, but the problems that they solve are ours, not theirs.
Drawing on my research in computational modeling, robotics, and cognitive science, I’ll explore this difference between living minds and artificial intelligence.

Along the way, I’ll show how questions about AI and questions about human intelligence have always been tightly intertwined. As we clarify their differences and celebrate their similarities, we learn about both.

Tuesday 26 May 2026
Talk title: Computing, Culture, and Choices: Why do we do what we do?

Speaker: Professor Steven Mills, School of Computing, University of Otago

Abstract

Rapid advances in AI and other computing technologies allow us to easily do things that until recently would have been considered science fiction. Object recognition, image and video synthesis, text analysis and generation, and many more tools are now available at our fingertips. The pace of development is outstripping our ability to understand its consequences and is increasingly driven by a few large commercial interests. We have, as Carl Sagan put it, “become powerful without becoming commensurately wise.”

Given our increased power it is the responsibility of all of us to wisely choose what we do (or do not do) with these new technologies. One area that is of particular interest to me is their use in culture and heritage applications. In this talk I will reflect on my work in this area and provide some thoughts as to how to place culture and community, rather than profit and power, at the heart of what we choose to do.

Tuesday 2 June 2025
Talk title: DIY AI: Open-source AI for Drug Discovery

Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Swain

Abstract

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence is often associated with tech giants like OpenAI and Google, but the true engine of scientific innovation frequently lies in the open-source community. Open-source software, models, and data are free for anyone to use, study, and improve. These community-driven tools are levelling the playing field and democratising high-level research, allowing researchers to tackle global health challenges from their own laptops.

In this talk, I’ll share my journey from working at a lab bench to becoming an AI researcher, a transition made possible by these accessible tools. I’ll showcase how open-source tools are already making a real difference to drug discovery, from helping scientists identify potential antibiotics that had been overlooked for a decade, to using generative AI to design the next generation of drugs.

Info: General Library Basement Foyer

Info: 109-B10 General Library Lecture Theatre

Event Venue

109-B10 Library Lecture Theatre, General Library Basement, (109-B10), Albany, New Zealand

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