Beyond the Desk: Barriers and Future Opportunities for AI to Assist Scientists in Embodied Physical Tasks
More scientists are now using AI, but prior studies have examined only how they use it 'at the desk' for computer-based work. However, given that scientific work often happens 'beyond the desk' at lab and field sites, we conducted the first study of how scientific practitioners use AI for embodied physical tasks. We interviewed 12 scientific practitioners doing hands-on lab and fieldwork in domains like nuclear fusion, primate cognition, and biochemistry, and found three barriers to AI adoption in these settings: 1) experimental setups are too high-stakes to risk AI errors, 2) constrained environments make it hard to use AI, and 3) AI cannot match the tacit knowledge of humans. Participan...
| Authors | Irene Hou, Alexander Qin, Lauren Cheng et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.HC |
| Published | 19 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 19 March 2026 |
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