An excellent article about creating automated lab assistants to allow human scientists to do the real innovating without wasting time on data-collection. The model is Advanced (Man + Machine on a team) chess. The essence of the article:
If technology allows us to free scientists from the day to day grind by letting robots do the bulk work of data collection, then a scientific culture can be built that’s more attuned to the big picture of analyzing data, formulating new hypotheses, and connecting disparate ideas. In other words, scientists can cultivate those skills that spur new thinking and innovation, rather than worrying about whether they properly accounted for the meniscus when pouring fluid into an Erlenmeyer flask.
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As Steve Martin ably dramatized in his great play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, there is an incredible overlap between great scientific discoveries and the arts, as well as the passion and thinking process that leads to great works in both. Leonardo da Vinci is, of course, who most minds turn to when thinking about Renaissance men, but the fact of the matter is that there is a great deal of overlap to this very day.
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Lured by the substantial prize money, several groups of strong grandmasters working with several computers at the same time entered the competition. At first, the results seemed predictable. The teams of human plus machine dominated even the strongest computers. The chess machine Hydra, which is a chess-specific supercomputer like Deep Blue, was no match for a strong human player using a relatively weak laptop. Human strategic guidance combined with the tactical acuity of a computer was overwhelming.
Enjoy the full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/04/21/chess-art-robots-and-the-future-of-science/