Arfon Smith

(public) Survey: Research Software Engineering & Generative AI The following questions are designed to inform discussion at the March 2026 workshop, Research Software Engineering in the Age of Generative AI: Building a Community Vision. As we prepare for this wor...

Help shape the future of Research Software Engineering in the age of Generative AI.

We’re collecting input for our March 2026 workshop.
Take the survey: tinyurl.com/RSE-GenAI

Closes 1 March.

@schmidtsciences.bsky.social @arfon.bsky.social @danielskatz.org @softwaresaved.bsky.social

Prism | A free, LaTeX-native workspace for scientists Write, edit, and collaborate on scientific documents in LaTeX with Prism—a free workspace integrating GPT-5.2 into research and writing.

This looks cool, but researchers should also understand what this is (a clear attempt to generate additional training data) openai.com/prism/. The new frontier in GenAI products is understanding (in great detail) how users act/think/collaborate en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveil...

Exciting to be a part of the team introducing this to the world yesterday. Lots of work ahead of us, but a great team behind this plan.

Also, we're hiring! www.schmidtsciences.org/careers/

We've shipped a major update to the JOSS submission scope requirements, affecting what is eligible for submission and what information we require from authors.

You can read more about the changes and our motivations here: blog.joss.theoj.org/2026/01/prep... #joss #opensource #openscience

Looking forward to catching up with old friends and colleagues at #AAS247 – it has been a while!

I'll be speaking in this session: "The Schmidt Observatory System – More Astrophysics for More People" on Wednesday at 3pm in 227A.

Research Software Submissions Research Software Papers @RSECon26 1-Rationale As part of the RSECon26 conference vision, we are launching the RSECon26 research software submissions. The goal of this new submission is to encourage…

📣 New for #RSECon26! We’re launching a Research Software submission route! 🎉
Have software ready for publication? Submit to @joss-openjournals.bsky.social as part of RSECon26. Accepted or pre-reviewed papers get JOSS+RSECon26 branding and a 15-min talk. More info: tinyurl.com/rsecon26joss

Love astronomy + large-scale scientific data systems?

Schmidt Sciences is hiring an Astrophysics Institute Program Scientist [Data & Software Systems] to help shape data pipelines and archives for new observatories:
jobs.lever.co/schmidt-enti... #astronomy #astrophysics #spacescience #openscience

Cool new opportunity in the Schmidt Sciences climate team: jobs.lever.co/schmidt-enti... 🌏 #climate #science

Technomoral Conversations: How Will AI Change Science? — Centre for Technomoral Futures During this Technomoral Conversation, we will hear from Dr Emily Sullivan, Dr Eran Tal, Dr Arfon Smith, and Professor Anna Scaife on the impact of data driven machine learning and AI on science and kn...

"One of the challenges of Generative AIs is they amplify existing behaviours, and that is both good and bad." @arfon.bsky.social

Watch Technomoral Conversations: How will AI change science? ▶️ edin.ac/3VSUXUt

@edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social @shannonvallor.bsky.social

Great to see the big turnout for our annual Flagship Lecture yesterday - now we have our regular fireside chat series coming up 4 Nov on AI and Science, led by my amazing new colleague & co-Director Emily Sullivan, with @erantal.bsky.social @arfon.bsky.social and Anna Scaife! Registration link below

Blue to green gradient graphic with headshots of the speakers for the Technomoral Conversations event, and text reading: Technomoral Conversations, How Will AI Change Science? Join us on 4 November at 6pm in Edinburgh & online, where we will hear from: Emily Sullivan (University of Edinburgh), Eran Tal (McGill University), Arfon Smith (Schmidt Sciences), and Anna Scaife (University of Manchester).

Scientists in nearly every field are reaching for new powerful machine learning & AI methods to see if AI has been the missing piece to solve longstanding problems & make new discoveries. Not only has AI started to change how science is done, but also how science is taught, organized & credited.

💖

ReSA News | July 2025

🎉 ReSA welcomes @schmidtsciences.bsky.social as our newest Organisational Member! Schmidt Sciences aims to accelerate scientific knowledge and breakthroughs with the most promising, advanced tools. Read the full announcement: preview.mailerlite.io/preview/7781...
@arfon.bsky.social

✴️ REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS! ✴️ @navigation.org is seeking bold projects at the intersection of AI and Open Science. We support innovative applications that make science more transparent, efficient, and trustworthy. Deadline: July 15, 2025. os.nav.fund/ai-for-os/ #openscience #AIforScience

Software Sustainability Institute Research Software Maintenance Fund logo, a grey wavy pattern

🟥 We are happy to announce that the SSI has received £4.8m from @ukri.org to launch the Research Software Maintenance Fund.
Find out more about this exciting opportunity at www.software.ac.uk/news/ukri-aw...

Cross-posting from LinkedIn as I'm going to try and be more present here going forward. tl;dr – I have a new job, at Schmidt Sciences: www.linkedin.com/posts/arfon_...

Gimlet. Always.

Building LLMs is probably not going be a brilliant business The Netscapes of AI

"Building LLMs is probably not going be a brilliant business": calpaterson.com/porter.html – interesting commentary by Cal Paterson on what makes for a good business, and why building LLMs might not be a good plan...