Philosophy Conference

Yuan-Sen Ting (OSU)

How Do I Cut My Project Work Time in Half Every Semester?

This talk focuses on large language models

Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning

Deep Learning / Neural Networks

Large language models / a.k.a. "chatbots"

Why large language models are a completely new paradigm for scientific research

Humans have already used automation for a long time, but we were still the 'connectors'

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

Pursuitworthiness: Rage

Anatomy of a 4-Day Project

Pre-LLM Era: 1 Project ≈ 1 Year

Ideation

~ few months

Data collection

~ few months

Coding / calculation

~ few months

Writing

~ few months

Creative writing
~ 2 days

Correcting grammar

Improving structures

Formatting

References

(2021 - now)

Writing

Problem:

Does the 'creative' part itself define the author?

What do we even mean?

Breaking down the questions
~ 2 days

Writing code

Code optimization

Debugging

Cloud integration / deployment

(2024 - now)

Coding / Data

Data curation

Human-AI interface

Your local
directory

Codes

+ web search

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

It feels like

My Recent Lecture Materials - NASA AI/ML Interest Group

https://tingyuansen.github.io/
NASA_AI_ML_STIG/

Ideation

~ few months

"Creative"
writing

~ 1 day

Refinement, ~ 0.5 days with AI

Vibe coding

~ 2 days

Over 10,000 lines of code;
None written manually

Data collection (completed before)

Data curation
~ 0.5 days with AI coding

Ideation

"Creative"
writing

~ 1 day

Refinement, ~ 0.5 days with AI

Vibe coding

~ 2 days

Over 10,000 lines of code;
None written manually

Data collection (completed before)

Data curation
~ 0.5 days with AI coding

Anatomy of the 4-Day Project

If You Think About It... What Did I Actually Do?

Ideation doesn't have a fixed timeline—it happens in the background

"Creative"
writing

Vibe coding

Data collection (completed before)

Practical problem:

What's 'left' is also hard to quantify in the current academic reward system

"Creative writing"

"Problem solving"

"Ideation"

The Seeding Problem:
AI amplifies expertise, writing or coding — but you need seeds first

But is That Even True? It's Never Either-Or

Creative writing

Breaking down the questions

The 'seed' threshold keeps dropping

But what
makes you,
you?

YST, Nature Astronomy, 2025

Yuan-Sen Ting (OSU)

How Do I Cut My Project Work Time in Half Every Semester?

This talk focuses on large language models

Why large language models are a completely new paradigm for scientific research

Humans have already used automation for a long time, but we were still the 'connectors'

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

Pursuitworthiness: Rage

Anatomy of a 4-Day Project

Pre-LLM Era: 1 Project ≈ 1 Year

Ideation

~ few months

Data collection

~ few months

Coding / calculation

~ few months

Writing

~ few months

Writing

Problem:

Does the 'creative' part itself define the author?

What do we even mean?

Coding / Data

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

It feels like

My Recent Lecture Materials - NASA AI/ML Interest Group

Ideation

~ few months

Ideation

Anatomy of the 4-Day Project

If You Think About It... What Did I Actually Do?

Ideation doesn't have a fixed timeline—it happens in the background

Practical problem:

What's 'left' is also hard to quantify in the current academic reward system

The Seeding Problem:
AI amplifies expertise, writing or coding — but you need seeds first

But is That Even True? It's Never Either-Or

The 'seed' threshold keeps dropping

But what
makes you,
you?

Pursuitworthiness

Hypothesis
/ Generation

Pursuitworthiness

"Acceptance" / Experiment

Yuan-Sen Ting (OSU)

How Do I Cut My Project Work Time in Half Every Semester?

This talk focuses on large language models

Why large language models are a completely new paradigm for scientific research

Humans have already used automation for a long time, but we were still the 'connectors'

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

Pursuitworthiness: Rage

Anatomy of a 4-Day Project

Pre-LLM Era: 1 Project ≈ 1 Year

Ideation

~ few months

Data collection

~ few months

Coding / calculation

~ few months

Writing

~ few months

Writing

Problem: Does the 'creative' part itself define the author? What do we even mean?

Coding / Data

Human already uses "automation" for a long time, but human was still the "connectors"

LLMs serve as the glue connecting many disparate parts—historically, a 'human' job

It feels like

My Recent Lecture Materials - NASA AI/ML Interest Group

Ideation

~ few months

Ideation

Anatomy of the 4-Day Project

If You Think About It... What Did I Actually Do?

Ideation doesn't have a fixed timeline—it happens in the background

Practical problem: What's 'left' is also hard to quantify in the current academic reward system

The Seeding Problem: AI amplifies expertise, writing or coding — but you need seeds first

But is That Even True? It's Never Either-Or

The 'seed' threshold keeps dropping

But what makes you, you?

Pursuitworthiness

Hypothesis / Generation

Pursuitworthiness

"Acceptance" / Experiment

Problem:

Does the 'creative' part itself define the author?

What do we even mean?

Practical problem:

What's 'left' is also hard to quantify in the current academic reward system

The Seeding Problem:
AI amplifies expertise, writing or coding — but you need seeds first

But what
makes you,
you?

Hypothesis
/ Generation