Explore, Then Commit: Measurement-Efficient Scientific Law Discovery with Language Models
Scientific law discovery requires selecting measurements and converting evidence into a governing equation. We evaluate an explore-then-commit protocol in which a large language model proposes hypotheses, a programmatic planner gathers measurements, and a fresh prompt synthesizes the final law from fixed observations. The protocol combines structured probes, automatic numerical diagnostics, restricted measurement batches, and optional interpreter access. Across 576 NewtonBench trials, we compare eight configurations on 12 physics modules using GPT-4.1-mini and a medium-difficulty GPT-4.1 replication. On medium tasks, interpreter-enabled planners use 8.6 versus 22.5 measurements per trial ...
| Authors | Kautik Mandve, Dileepa Fernando |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 6 October 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 6 October 2026 |
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