AI and Supercomputing are Powering the Next Wave of Breakthrough Science - But at What Cost?

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) are rapidly becoming the engines of modern science. However, their joint effect on discovery has yet to be quantified at scale. Drawing on metadata from over five million scientific publications (2000-2024), we identify how AI and HPC interact to shape research outcomes across 27 fields. Papers combining the two technologies are up to three times more likely to introduce novel concepts and five times more likely to reach top-cited status than conventional work. This convergence of AI and HPC is redefining the frontier of scientific creativity but also deepening global inequalities in access to computational power and expertise. Our findings suggest that the future of discovery will depend not only on algorithms and compute, but also on how equitably the world shares these transformative tools.