ChatGPT joins Nature’s list of highlights in science – 12/13/2023 – Science

For the first time, Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific publications, included a non-human in its annual list of personalities in science: ChatGPT.

In this edition, there is also a Brazilian: Marina Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

The list, released annually since 2011, should not be interpreted as an award or a ranking, but rather as a list of important stories and people for science in 2023. The names are appointed by the publication’s editors.

Regarding ChatGPT, the magazine stated that its presence on the list is justified by the way in which artificial intelligence is transforming how researchers conduct and disseminate research.

“ChatGPT has dominated the news this year, and its influence is being felt across science — and society,” says Richard Monastersky, one of Nature’s editors.

“While the tool is not a person and does not fit neatly into the list, we have expanded our list to recognize the profound way in which generative AI is altering the development and progress of science.”

Generative artificial intelligence, according to Nature, has already become an indispensable assistant for many researchers, helping to summarize or produce texts and write codes, for example.

Annie Kritcher

Physics at the US National Ignition Facility, helped develop experiments that, for the first time, triggered a nuclear fusion reaction that generates more energy than it consumes.

Eleni Myrivili

The United Nations’ first global chief heat officer is helping countries prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Ilya Sutskever

Chief scientist at OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, was recognized for having a central role in the development of ChatGPT and the language models that make it work.

James Hamlin

A physicist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, he noted that there were problems in a study on room-temperature superconductivity. The research ended up being retracted by Nature itself and the author of the study, professor of mechanical engineering and physics Ranga P. Dias, has been questioned by the scientific community.

Halidou Red

Director of the Nanoro Clinical Research Unit, the doctor was remembered for his important clinical trial work for the approval of a vaccine that could make a big difference against malaria.

Kalpana Kalahasti

Associate project director for the Chandrayaan-3 mission for the Indian space agency, she assisted in the design of India’s first successful landing on the Moon.

Katsuhiko Hayashi

Biologist at Osaka University, Japan, and his fellow researchers who, for the first time, managed to produce mouse pups from the cells of two male mice.

Marina Silva

She was remembered for political measures that helped to considerably reduce deforestation in the Amazon, after years of explosion in destruction during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, which openly minimized the devastation of the forest.

The Marina Silva administration resumed stricter policies to combat deforestation. Under the Lula and Marina administration, for example, the PPCDam (Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon), which had been canceled during the Bolsonaro government, was resumed.

The minister joins the small group of Brazilians who have already appeared on the list.

In 2021, Tulio de Oliveira (2021) was included, a scientist who sequenced the omicron variant of Covid in South Africa and warned about its danger.

Shortly before, in 2019, it was the turn of Ricardo Galvão, president of CNPq and former director of Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).

In 2016, the mention went to Celina Turchi, epidemiologists who made it possible to associate microcephaly with Zika virus infection.

Svetlana Mojsov

Biochemistry that, decades ago, played a central role in the discovery of GLP-1, a hormone related to drugs against obesity, such as Ozempic, which reached the world in 2023.

Thomas Powles

A cancer researcher at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London was cited for his study, which represents a major advance in the treatment of bladder cancer and other cancers.