AI's Impact on Scientific Development - Illustrated

Earlier this year, I worked on a comic adaptation of a nuanced paper, written by a group of prominent computer scientists in consultation with subject-matter experts, about how we could shape the future of AI. The paper is called Shaping AI’s Impact on Billions of Lives, and the project was done in collaboration with the Laude Institute. The paper is divided into sections, and when working on the science section, I was surprised to learn that AI had already had some meaningful impacts on scientific discoveries.

Illustration that says, "AI has already supported huge scientific developments in recent years: the first image of a black hole, better weather prediction," The illustration shows a black hole and a storm cloud, tornado and wind gust.

Illustration says "improved flood forecasting, and contrail reduction are among other peer-reviewed and published studies enabled by AI." Illustration shows a flood plane and someone pointing to planes asking "where are the white tails"?

The one I found myself thinking about the most, may not be the most influential, but it will be an easy one to track: the reduction of contrails, those airplane-tail clouds in the sky. I find myself looking up at them wondering when that research will become a reality and actually reduce those banners in the sky.

Illustration says, "This is only the beginning of AI-powered scientific breakthroughs." Illustration is of a sun rising behind a horizon with some buds.

Illustration says, "With current experiments using the more powerful recent AI models, the velocity of scientific discovery is about to accelerate."

The last panel of this section may be my favorite of the entire project.

Illustration says, "we could see 100 years of progress in a single decade." Drawing shows a field of beautiful flowers, under a full sun.

It references a prediction by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's, in his "Machines of Loving Grace" essay. He writes that

"powerful AI could at least 10x the rate of these discoveries, giving us the next 50-100 years of biological progress in 5-10 years."

We’ll see how it all pans out as time goes on. Hopefully, in the arena of science, it’s mostly for the better.

You can read more about this Research Paper Comic on my portfolio page.

Review in Broken Frontier Comics News Outlet

I wrote recently about how my comic (Don’t) Go to Law School is available for the month of July in the LD Online Comics Fair. But even after the fair closes, there’s still another way to get a sense for what the comic was about:

The comic was also recently reviewed in the comics news outlet Broken Frontier, in a piece called (Don’t) Go to Law School - Maddy Buck Convinces Herself (and, Her Readers) Law School is Not Boring After All in this Humorous Memoir. Take a look at the review if you have a moment, head over to the Online Comics Fair if it’s still July 2025, or reach out if you have any questions about it!

A Nuanced Approach to AI, in Comic Form

Would you rather read a research paper or a picture book? How about a research paper versus a comic?

If you’re one of many visual learners out there, then you may find yourself bogged down by dense, educational text. I am one of those people, too. In a recent project for Laude, I broke down the concepts of a nuanced paper about the potential future of AI (Shaping AI) into a series of text and images. These were then turned into a comic book, complete with ads and a shiny cover. You could call it an infographic of the paper, but split into multiple panels. The comic book explains the topics from the paper (How should AI be regulated? How can AI positively impact science? How should a computer science lab be designed? How will AI impact media and art? What is AI’s role in employment, healthcare, education?) in text and image allowing you to get the paper’s message in a fun, engaging way.

When the folks at Laude go on tour to talk about how the organization can help computer scientist researchers ship their work and tackle tough problems in AI, they give out this comic book to the audience.

For more images from this project, see here.