# Ethan Mollick argues AI could reshape how science chooses research questions

> Original title: Academics have to invest tremendous effort into a single paper, so we often work on papers that we suspect will yield interesting & signi...

- Source: Ethan Mollick
- Published: 2026-10-29T00:00:50.000Z
- Bad Influence: https://badinfluence.news/items/yrsr7xigwpc0q9mb04nift7re
- Original: https://x.com/emollick/status/2115594672471195779

## Summary

Mollick says academics invest heavily in each paper, so they tend to pursue predictable work likely to yield significant results. He argues AI faces no such constraint, which could force a rethink of how science is done. The post cites a working paper by Eva Vivalt on whether AI can forecast economic treatment effects from pre-registration documents, answering yes.

## Post

Academics have to invest tremendous effort into a single paper, so we often work on papers that we suspect will yield interesting & significant results. But that also pushes us to predictable work.

AI has no such constraints, forcing us to rethink a lot of how science is done.

## Quoted post @evavivalt

> New working paper: Can AI forecast treatment effects in economics from pre-registration documents?
> 
> Answer: Yes. 1/

https://x.com/evavivalt/status/2115519456491511996