Macro-level impact of LLMs on the scientific enterprise

Determine the macro-level impact of Large Language Models on the scientific enterprise across disciplines, establishing how Large Language Model adoption affects scientific research processes and outcomes at scale.

Background

Prior work has demonstrated the utility of LLMs in specific scientific tasks, but evidence remains fragmented and cross-domain effects are insufficiently understood. The authors explicitly frame a high-level, unresolved question about the overall impact of LLMs on science.

They assemble multi-repository datasets to begin addressing this question empirically, signaling the need for comprehensive, cross-disciplinary measurement of LLMs’ systemic effects on scientific production and evaluation.

References

This work highlights the incredible potential of LLMs across specific scientific undertakings, raising an open question: What is the macro level impact of LLMs on the scientific enterprise?

— Scientific production in the era of Large Language Models  (2601.13187 - Kusumegi et al., 19 Jan 2026) in Introduction