Aster: Autonomous Scientific Discovery over 20x Faster Than Existing Methods

Researchers have introduced Aster, an AI agent that autonomously improves programs to achieve new scientific results. It operates over 20 times faster than existing methods, drastically reducing the compute needed for discovery. In tests across mathematics, biology, and AI training, it matched or beat state-of-the-art human solutions. For one neuroscience task, it matched the best human performance using less than 1/190th of the computational resources. The system is now accessible via a web interface.