A Universe To Be Decided: Towards Specialized Foundation Models for Advancing Astronomy

Explore the cutting-edge application of Foundation Models in Astronomy through this 49-minute conference talk by Ioana Ciucă, a Jubilee Joint Fellow at the Australian National University. Delve into the collaborative efforts of the UniverseTBD consortium, which aims to democratize science for everyone. Learn about AstroLLaMa-1, the first specialized large language model for Astronomy, and how it overcomes limitations of general-purpose Foundation Models. Discover how this model, enhanced with domain-specific literature from NASA and ArXiv, improves text completion and embedding capabilities. Examine the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in generating complex scientific hypotheses and extracting insights from astronomy literature. Explore the validation process involving human experts and the intriguing patterns uncovered in the embedding space. Get a glimpse into the preliminary work on AstroLLaVA, a multi-modal model allowing interaction with astronomical images via natural language. Gain insights into how artificial intelligence can augment scientific inquiry in Astronomy and broader scientific fields.