* Originally in: SF_Reality

'AI tools could lead to nothing less than the death of astrophysics': Researchers predict bleak future for thousands who study black holes, galaxies, and supernovae

Date:
Tue, 09 Jun 2026 22:35:00 +0000

Description:
Astrophysicists increasingly fear artificial intelligence could weaken scientific reasoning while transforming research, publishing, training, and academic culture worldwide.

FULL STORY
AI systems are rapidly transforming astrophysics research,
leaving many scientists uncertain whether human researchers will remain central to future discoveries.

Across major astronomy institutions, researchers increasingly rely upon large language models for coding, mathematical analysis, proposal writing, and interpreting enormous telescope datasets. Several astrophysicists have now warned AI systems could eventually change scientific practice so dramatically that traditional human research skills will gradually disappear entirely.

There has been growing institutional pressure
encouraging astronomers to integrate advanced machine learning systems into daily scientific work and professional scientific publishing.

At Harvards Center for Astrophysics, scientists showed AI systems capable of generating mathematical models, software code, and apparently publishable research papers.

One researcher explained ChatGPT solved a longstanding galaxy motion analysis problem within minutes after frustrating scientific teams for several years previously.

With such deep AI integration, it becomes difficult to determine where scientific assistance ends and intellectual dependence begins.

A lot of people think that its too late to intervenewere done, says David Hogg, a computational astrophysicist at New York University (NYU).

Several scientists argued that younger astrophysicists could face the
greatest disruption because AI increasingly performs tasks traditionally completed during scientific training periods.

We all collectively came to the realization that these tools are about to
take over, said Rodrigo Crdova Rosado, a postdoc student.

He warned that excessive dependence upon automated systems could eventually create researchers lacking essential mathematical reasoning and coding abilities.

Younger researchers are now lacking critical thinking, which is necessary for difficult technical work and forms the intellectual foundation necessary for meaningful scientific discoveries.

Every hour you spend confused is an hour you spend building the
infrastructure inside your own head, said Cosmology researcher, Minas Karamanis.

Unfortunately, nobody wants to get confused anymore because there is artificial intelligence to the rescue.

LLMs are forcing us to face the fact that, as a field, we do not do well at assessing ourselves and our peers, Natalie Hogg, a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge, wrote in a February blog post. Journal editors
report mounting publishing pressures Editors at major astronomy journals already report major increases in scientific submissions since AI tools
became common academic research tools internationally.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), for example, is now struggling to find reviewers for submitted papers because of the widespread use of AI
tools.

The quantity of things of low quality can strangle the systemand the only solution to that is to do pretty much arbitrary gatekeeping, said Ethan Vishniac, editor in chief of AAS.

Despite growing anxiety, several scientists acknowledge advanced language models still struggle with sophisticated theoretical physics problems involving original mathematical interpretation and reasoning.

According to Harvard astrophysicist Cecilia Garraffo, artificial intelligence systems 'failed miserably' to solve difficult gravitational equations.

Some researchers nevertheless fear rapid technological progress could eventually overwhelm existing scientific safeguards.

Via Science

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/ai-tools-could-lead-to-nothing-less-than-the-dea th-of-astrophysics-researchers-predict-bleak-future-for-thousands-who-study-bl ack-holes-galaxies-and-supernovae

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