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Can AI-artificial intelligence come up with newer or better research ideas than a human? A new study in social psychology explored this question by testing whether AI- could help researchers generate creative and useful hypotheses. With research growing faster than any one person can keep up with, AI might be the tool that helps connect the dots. 

In one recent study, researchers used a two-step process to see if AI could create sound research ideas. First, they trained a language model (GPT-3) on over 100,000 psychology article summaries to teach it how social psychology research is written. Then, they had the AI generate new research questions and asked experts to rate them, without their knowing if they came from a human or a computer. 

Results? In both cases, expert psychologists rated the AI-generated research ideas as just as good, or even better, than those written by humans. These AI-created hypotheses scored high on clarity, originality, and relevance, and could help researchers save time and uncover new paths to insightful research. The big idea? AI might not just support research – it could help uncover the next big direction to reveal how people think, feel, and relate to one another.