Google opens interactive ATLAS explorer for AI use across jobs

Readers can explore how occupations from electricians to purchasing managers use AI, examine household tasks and compare adoption across countries. Google’s Zanna Iscenko and Scott Strand announced the new interface for the long-term ATLAS research project.

Google’s examples show why the measure matters. Computer and mathematical occupations account for 30% of work-related AI usage in the US. That is a share of usage, not a finding that 30% of those workers use AI.

Time saved does not equal discoveries made

Alongside the explorer, Google, Google DeepMind and MIT FutureTech present research analysing 2,600 specialised models and surveying more than 600 scientists in the US and UK. Nearly half of those surveyed reported using some form of AI daily.

Scientists reported saving just under seven hours a week. The research also found time spent validating AI outputs, a backlog of hypotheses and bottlenecks in physical experiments and clinical validation. The savings are self-reported, not a measured increase in discoveries.

The researchers found different roles for different tools: language models were used across fields and tasks, while specialised models were relatively more common in health and life sciences and in prediction, generation and simulation.