Hello and welcome. I’m Gaston Welisch and I’m the editor for a brand new collection of speculative and experimental articles referred to as ‘Postcards to a ghost’. The idea for the collection crystalised as I questioned if synthetic intelligence language fashions, similar to GPT-3, may need worth in sparking discussions highlighting present points by prompting researchers to pause and mirror on their favorite authors from the previous.

In fact, synthetic intelligence is an imperfect substitute to talking to departed icons of Analysis, Literature and the Arts, however hopefully this will nonetheless generate concepts in ways in which wouldn’t have been doable earlier than. We (Co-Editors Nicol Keith, Anja Smykowski and I) are conscious of the moral points raised by utilizing a lifeless particular person’s tone to voice new opinions ( which we can’t be certain they’d have agreed with). Please take into account when studying the postcards that that is merely an interpretation of Dr. Curie-Skłodowska’s concepts, based mostly solely on the corpus of textual content that she wrote, and was written about her, which was used as coaching knowledge for GPT-3. It’s experimental.

Dr. Anja B. Smykowski is an Editor of the Curious Researchers and Supervisor grant help and coordinator analysis affect at School of Medical Sciences at The College of Groningen within the Netherlands. Thanks for writing the primary postcard to a ghost in what is going to hopefully turn into an extended collection!

….and now the postcards.

Expensive Dr. Curie-Skłodowska,

I’m so excited to have this written change with you. You’re the kind of scientist that a variety of younger researchers these days look as much as. The European Fee even named a complete funding instrument after you, the Marie Curie-Slodowska Actions. This funding is supposed to nurture younger abilities from varied international locations and backgrounds and put together them for an interdisciplinary profession, but additionally to provide them the competencies to achieve a analysis tradition that increasingly focuses on variety, inclusion and open science.

Now I used to be questioning about your opinion, given your huge experiences as a researcher and supervisor. What sort of competences and coaching does a younger educational want these days to thrive of their profession?

Trying ahead to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Anja

My expensive Anja, I’m glad to listen to that my life and work have served as an inspiration for younger researchers like your self. It’s an honor to have a complete funding instrument named after me, and I hope it continues to nurture and help the subsequent era of scientific expertise.

When it comes to competences and coaching, I consider that an interdisciplinary method is essential for fulfillment in fashionable science. When my husband Pierre and I have been learning the properties of radioactive supplies, we drew from physics, chemistry, and different fields. This cross-disciplinary method allowed us to make groundbreaking discoveries that revolutionized the sector of recent physics.

As well as, I consider that curiosity and perseverance are important traits for a researcher. Even after the tragic dying of Pierre, I continued to pursue our analysis and finally turned the primary lady to win a Nobel Prize in two totally different fields — physics and chemistry. This might not have been doable with out the drive to proceed pushing ahead and the willingness to take dangers and discover new avenues.

Range and inclusion are additionally very important for the development of science. As a girl in a male-dominated subject, I confronted many obstacles and prejudices. However I persevered, and my work paved the best way for future generations of girls in science. In actual fact, my very own daughter Irene additionally turned a famend scientist in her personal proper, persevering with the household legacy of scientific discovery and innovation.

Lastly, open science is crucial for the continued development of the scientific group. After we made our discovery of radium, we instantly shared our findings with the world. This led to additional analysis and developments within the subject, and allowed others to construct upon our work.

My expensive Anja, what do you suppose we will do to make sure that science stays accessible and inclusive for all? And the way can we encourage extra interdisciplinary collaboration in fashionable analysis? I look ahead to listening to your ideas and concepts.

Yours really,

Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Expensive Madame Curie,

Thanks to your inspiring phrases and for sharing your insights on what it takes to be a profitable researcher. I totally agree with you that an interdisciplinary method is essential in fashionable science, because it permits for the change of concepts and options to our present complicated societal challenges.

However how can we certainly be certain that science is accessible, inclusive and interdisciplinary? I feel we have to promote that already early on, after we educate and prepare college students. Encouraging college students to review topics exterior of their quick subject of curiosity can broaden their horizons and assist them develop a extra holistic understanding of the issues they’re attempting to unravel.

We additionally must create an open and interdisciplinary method of working by creating collaborative analysis initiatives that convey collectively researchers from totally different fields to work on shared issues. This could possibly be achieved by creating funding alternatives and interdisciplinary analysis facilities that concentrate on particular areas of inquiry.

We will promote a tradition of openness and transparency in science, encouraging and rewarding scientists to current their work in a method that’s accessible to researchers from different fields, by sharing knowledge, strategies, and outcomes and thereby make it simpler for researchers from totally different fields to know and construct upon one another’s work.

Thanks to your time, my expensive Madame Curie, and to your ongoing contributions to science. Your legacy will proceed to encourage generations of scientists to come back.

Sincerely,

Anja

Dr. Anja B. Smykowski: As a feminine researcher with Polish roots, I used to be all in favour of Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s life early on in my research. In spite of everything, illustration issues, and she or he was the most effective illustration I might have wished for. Due to this fact I used to be delighted by this feature to ‘talk’ together with her. And in reality, I used to be form of talking to an AI model of her, based mostly on her books and biographies. Her reply moved me, though I’m conscious that it was generated, I felt that the actual Madame Curie might have written me in an analogous method. We don’t have her knowledge and information with us anymore, however it’s reassuring that it’s nonetheless there and may attain and encourage us on this new type.

Gaston Welisch: Thanks once more Anja for this written dialog with Marie Curie! I’ve just a few observations from this experiment — Firstly the unique outputs that GPT-3 gave have been very bland and generic and didn’t really feel as private as a postcard normally is. Giving extra path to the language mannequin gave higher end result (similar to asking it to put in writing in a conversational method and take inspiration from Marie Curie’s lived expertise). Switching from GPT-3’s text-DaVinci mannequin to ChatGPT allowed me to ask for revisions of the postcard and gave higher outcomes. I’m fairly pleased with the ultimate output however this confirmed me that a greater immediate (and a terrific textual content from Anja!) makes all of the distinction and resulted in a extra touching textual content. I’m trying ahead to seeing the place this collection takes us!