Co-Intelligent Design of Catalysis Research with Large Language Models: Hype or Reality?

Large language models are making a strong impact on broad fields of science, pushing the efforts to minimize hallucinations and to support specialized language. Co-intelligence, the synergy between human and artificial intelligences, can have a strong potential in research through the use of large language models. This Viewpoint focused on the question: Can large language models collaborate with chemists in the design of catalysis research? In a conversation based on a few prompts giving minimal guidance, ChatGPT-4o proved its co-design abilities at different levels of detail, making a major contribution to the definition of a research project concept and its workflows. Relevant flaws were also observed, highlighting the importance of involving critical thinking from highly-educated researchers. The assessment of the results by ChatGPT-4o itself and other large language models, including DeepSeek and Gemini, was also explored.