How Agentic AI is Transforming Scientific Computing and Research Workflows
Scientific computing in the age of agentic AI
We explore how AI agents like Codex and Claude Code are reshaping scientific computing by lowering engineering costs and accelerating software maintenance. Our field report reveals a shift where researchers move from implementation to verification, using agents to handle tedious tasks while retaining control over scientific direction. While agents speed up development, human judgment remains essential for validating results and ensuring long-term stewardship of critical research tools.
With coding agents, it's quite easy to go fast; for now, to go far in science, there's still a need for expert guidance, understanding, taste, and care.
- hbnfg
Coordinated with the ACM announcement?
- vouaobrasil
When I was in school, one of my professors told me something like "the age of the small research project is over. Now it's becoming a lot more like industry where the large-scale research plan is king". Using AI and large-scale computing in general is a continuation of that, even in abstract fields like math.
Have to admit, while it might be impressive, I found this new paradigm to be not much fun. Some find allure in it because it gives some immediately impressive results or finds some low-hanging fruit that wasn't there before.
But I get the feeling that we're becoming smaller and smaller irrelevant cogs in a machine where the individual is becoming more replaceable every day.
Proponents of high-tech utopias where we are 100% safe and all diseases are solved and we have endless surplus no doubt support this sort of future. But I think it's basically equivalent of living like zoo animals - anhorrent and not a future worth working towards.
So while there can be no doubt that new science will be done with these techniques, I for one have no enthusiasm about whatever will be discovered, unless of course AI goes haywire and deletes itself.
- krupan
Can we just stop posting press releases to HN?