AI is boosting scientific careers but shrinking studies

Using AI tools can affect scientists' careers as well as the scope of their work, a study found. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

Scientists who use artificial intelligence tools publish three times as many papers and climb the academic ranks more than a year faster than peers who do not use the technology.

But AI could be having a detrimental impact on scientific research as the technology shrinks the number of topics studied by almost five per cent.