News & Comment

Biobanks have emerged as valuable resources for studying behavioural and social genomics, but are not representative of global populations. Thus, current research findings do not generalize, and exacerbate knowledge and health inequalities. We call on researchers, publishers and funders to address barriers to biobank diversity.

Fewer than one in ten research articles are posted as preprints. Yet sharing research on public repositories comes with many advantages and few caveats. At Nature Human Behaviour, we encourage researchers to embrace preprints to jumpstart the communication of research findings.

The use of typological conceptions of race in science is not based in evidence. A recent report from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, USA clarifies how human populations should be described in genetics and genomics research. It makes twelve recommendations that are highly relevant to behavioural genetics.

Most scientific prizes and medals are named after men, and most of these are also awarded to men. The very few awards named after women or not named after a person at all are more frequently awarded to women, although parity between the gender of recipients is still not achieved. We call on the scientific community to rethink the naming of academic awards, medals and prizes, their nomination and selection criteria, and to diversify awarding committees and procedures to ensure greater inclusivity.

Large language models can be construed as ‘cognitive models’, scientific artefacts that help us to understand the human mind. If made openly accessible, they may provide a valuable model system for studying the emergence of language, reasoning and other uniquely human behaviours.

Large language models (LLMs) are impressive technological creations but they cannot replace all scientific theories of cognition. A science of cognition must focus on humans as embodied, social animals who are embedded in material, cultural and technological contexts.

Although artificial intelligence (AI) was already ubiquitous, the recent arrival of generative AI has ushered in a new era of possibilities as well as risks. This Focus explores the wide-ranging impacts of AI tools on science and society, examining both their potential and their pitfalls.

Large language models are capable of impressive feats, but the job of scientific review requires more than the statistics of published work can provide.

In Japan, people express gratitude towards technology and this helps them to achieve balance. Yet, dominant narratives teach us that anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence (AI) is not healthy. Our attitudes towards AI should not be bult upon overarching universal models, argues Shoko Suzuki.

Algorithms are designed to learn user preferences by observing user behaviour. This causes algorithms to fail to reflect user preferences when psychological biases affect user decision making. For algorithms to enhance social welfare, algorithm design needs to be psychologically informed.

The current debate surrounding the use and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in Brazil has social and political implications. We summarize these discussions, advocate for balance in the current debate around AI and fake news, and caution against preemptive AI regulation.

Social and behavioural science offers a valuable toolkit for combating pandemics, but has not been broadly applied to tackle the rising pandemic of antimicrobial resistance.

Large language models (LLMs) do not distinguish between fact and fiction. They will return an answer to almost any prompt, yet factually incorrect responses are commonplace. To ensure our use of LLMs does not degrade science, we must use them as zero-shot translators: to convert accurate source material from one form to another.