Can AI Invent or Just Help Scientists Work Faster? with Richard Socher

AI can help scientists write code, analyze data, and draft papers. But can it generate the ideas that lead to new discoveries? Richard Socher, former chief scientist at Salesforce, founder of You.com, and co-founder of Recursive, joins us to explore the move from AI assisting researchers to AI conducting research. Starting with AI improving AI, we examine what it takes to propose ideas, run experiments, and validate results, and how those capabilities could eventually accelerate discovery across biology, chemistry, and physics. The conversation covers Recursive’s reported results in model training and GPU kernel optimization, why fast verification matters, and how reward hacking complicates the search for real improvements. We also discuss the data and experimental infrastructure needed for broader scientific discovery, whether commercial incentives can keep increasingly capable systems aligned, and Richard’s vision for a “Eureka machine.”