The “creeping normality” of large language models is quietly reshaping the life sciences
by the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences
July 7, 2026
Large language models (LLMs) are gradually transforming research in the life sciences in ways that extend far beyond improving productivity, and becoming a new normal before scientists have agreed where the limits of its use should be.
A new study by an international team of scientists describes this phenomenon as the “creeping normality” of generative artificial intelligence (AI), a process in which profound changes become accepted because they occur incrementally through small, subtle steps. “While generative AI has rapidly become part of the everyday workflows of many researchers, its long-term effects on almost all aspects of science have received comparatively little attention”, says Ivan Jarić, researcher from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and lead author of the study. “Routine reliance on these tools could fundamentally reshape the foundations of scientific practice and culture”, he adds.
Read the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.70059