iGEM AI x SynBio Study

Calling all 2024 iGEM Teams: We invite you to participate in an exciting AI x SynBio study!

Instructions
- Please give answers that reflect your individual work on your iGEM project (rather than on behalf of your team). For example, if someone else on your team is using OpenFold to design proteins, but you have never run the software, do not include it in your answers.
- Multiple members of a team are encouraged to participate, as we're keen to explore the use of AI across different roles, expertise levels, and stages of a project.

Notes & Disclaimers
- Participating in this study is not a deliverable, medal requirement or other judging-related aspect of the iGEM Competition.
- Personal/Individual data collection is conducted under iGEM’s Privacy Policy.
- While aggregated data from this study may be shared publicly for informational or research purposes, individual responses will remain confidential and will not be disclosed outside of iGEM without prior consent.

Have questions or issues with the survey? Please contact hq@igem.org.

In this study, AI tools refer to the full range of software applications, models and systems using artificial intelligence technologies that contribute to advance all stages of your project (Ideation, iGEM Engineering Cycle: Design/Build/Test/Learn, Documentation).

Within your iGEM project...

Question Title

* 1. Are you currently using AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Yes

Question Title

* 2. Are you planning to use AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Yes

Maybe

Question Title

* 3. Are you currently developing AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Yes

Question Title

* 4. Are you planning to develop AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Yes

Maybe

Question Title

* 5. Which specific tools are you using or planning to use?
Select all that apply and specify any others

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Claude (Anthropic)

Le Chat (Mistral)

LLaMA (Meta)

Perplexity AI

GitHub Copilot

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Scikit-learn

Keras

XGBoost

ESMFold (Meta)

AlphaFold (Google DeepMind)

OmegaFold

RoseTTAFold

ProteinMPNN

RFDiffusion

IntFOLD

RaptorX

OpenFold

BioMistral

RetroPath2

BioGPT (Microsoft)

Med-Gemini (Google)

Developing a custom AI model based on Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) technology (please specify in the "Other" section)

Developing a custom AI model (please specify in the "Other" section)

Electronic Lab Notebook with AI-Assisted Search (Asimov)

Baidu Brain (Baidu)

Watson (IBM)

Google Cloud AI

ResearchRabbit

INDRA

None

Prefer not to say

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 6. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Ideation stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Finding ideas for our project

Literature research

Explaining concepts, literature, etc

Generate hypotheses

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 7. (In the Ideation stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 8. (In the Ideation stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 9. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Design stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Protein Design

DNA Sequence Design

Small Molecule Design

Other Biological Materials Design (please specify in the "Other" section)

Genetic Circuit Design

Biological Pathway Design

Vaccine Design

Viral Vector Design

Protein Structure Prediction

Genetic Variants Impact Prediction

Genome Assembly

Toxicity Prediction/Detection

Pathogen Property Prediction

Host-Pathogen Interaction Prediction

Immunological System Modelling

Experimental Design/Planning

Experimental Simulation

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 10. (In the Design stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 11. (In the Design stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 12. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Build stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Experiment Simulation

Coding Instructions for Experiment (Lab) Automation

Build Experiments Vocal Assistant

Genome Assembly

Bioreactor Optimization

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 13. (In the Build stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 14. (In the Build stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 15. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Test stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Experiment Simulation

Coding Instructions for Experiment (Lab) Automation

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 16. (In the Test stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 17. (In the Test stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 18. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Learn stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Writing code for Data Analysis (e.g. Python for bioinformatics)

Data Analysis

Result Interpretation

Experiment Data Feedback & Troubleshoot

Iterative Model Prediction

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 19. (In the Learn stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 20. (In the Learn stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 21. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Documentation stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Improve writing

Generate content

Translate content

Create presentations

Write reports

Write code to help with communication (e.g. HTML for the website)

Not Applicable

Question Title

* 22. (In the Documentation stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Minimal Trust

Full Confidence

Question Title

* 23. (In the Documentation phase) How have you or do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools?

Question Title

* 24. What challenges do you face when using AI tools ?
Select all that apply and specify any others

Infrastructure and Connectivity: issues related to the necessary hardware, software, and network resources.

Interpretability: difficulties in understanding or interpreting the outputs generated by AI models, often due to complexity or the "black box" nature of some AI algorithms.

Human-AI Collaboration: determining when to defer to AI recommendations and when human judgment should prevail and clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of humans and AI tools.

Data Quality: problems with poor-quality data, which may be incomplete, noisy, unrepresentative, or biased, affecting the performance and reliability of AI models.

Data Availability: difficulty in obtaining sufficient and relevant data to train and validate AI models.

Ethical Concerns: issues related to privacy, fairness, accountability, and the potential for misuse or unintended consequences.

Geographically Related Accessibility: barriers related to the geographical location that might affect access to the necessary technology or data.

Output Verification/Validation: verify and validate the outputs to ensure their accuracy, reliability, and suitability for the intended purpose.

None

Not Applicable

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 25. Your Information

First/Given Name

Lastname/Surname

Email

Team Name (as it appears on your Team Information Page)

Team ID (as it appears on your Team Information Page)

Working Area within your iGEM team (Drylab, Wetlab, Both, Other)

Education Level (High School, Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree, PhD, Other)

Country of Residence

iGEM AI x SynBio Study

Calling all 2024 iGEM Teams: We invite you to participate in an exciting AI x SynBio study!

Question Title

* 1. Are you currently using AI tools? This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Question Title

* 2. Are you planning to use AI tools?This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Question Title

* 3. Are you currently developing AI tools?This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Question Title

* 4. Are you planning to develop AI tools?This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

Question Title

* 5. Which specific tools are you using or planning to use?Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 6. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Ideation stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 7. (In the Ideation stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools? 1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 8. (In the Ideation stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 9. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Design stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 10. (In the Design stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools? 1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 11. (In the Design stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 12. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Build stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 13. (In the Build stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 14. (In the Build stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 15. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Test stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 16. (In the Test stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 17. (In the Test stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 18. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Learn stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 19. (In the Learn stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 20. (In the Learn stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?

Question Title

* 21. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Documentation stage of your project? Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 22. (In the Documentation stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

Question Title

* 23. (In the Documentation phase) How have you or do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools?

Question Title

* 24. What challenges do you face when using AI tools ?Select all that apply and specify any others

Question Title

* 25. Your Information

Question Title

* 26. Do you have any feedback on this survey or anything that you would like to share with us?

* 1. Are you currently using AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

* 2. Are you planning to use AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

* 3. Are you currently developing AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

* 4. Are you planning to develop AI tools?
This refers to your individual use, not your team's use.

* 5. Which specific tools are you using or planning to use?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 6. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Ideation stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 7. (In the Ideation stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 9. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Design stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 10. (In the Design stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 12. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Build stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 14. (In the Build stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 15. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Test stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 16. (In the Test stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 18. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Learn stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 19. (In the Learn stage) On a scale of 1 to 5, how much trust do you place in the results generated by AI tools?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 21. How do these AI tools assist with tasks in the Documentation stage of your project?
Select all that apply and specify any others

* 22. (In the Documentation stage) Do you plan to validate the information derived from AI tools? If so, how?
1 indicating minimal trust and 5 indicating full confidence

* 24. What challenges do you face when using AI tools ?
Select all that apply and specify any others