Philosophy articles from across Nature Portfolio

Quantum mechanics depicts a counter-intuitive reality in which the act of observation influences what is observed — and few can agree on what that means.

There is a growing awareness of the substantial environmental costs of large language models (LLMs), but discussing the sustainability of LLMs only in terms of CO₂ emissions is not enough. This Comment emphasizes the need to take into account the social and ecological costs and benefits of LLMs as well.

The sense of presence—the psychological experience of “being there”—has emerged as a critical phenomenon in Virtual Reality (VR) research. While traditional approaches have predominantly focused on technological features as primary drivers of presence, this paper argues that such a view is fundamentally incomplete. We contend that presence is primarily a psychological phenomenon shaped by three critical dimensions that extend beyond mere technological sophistication: (1) the impact of content and narrative structure in virtual environments, (2) the influence of users’ individual characteristics and socio-cultural contexts, and (3) the relationship between presence and users’ intentional structures. Through a synthesis of current evidence, we demonstrate that these psychological and social factors often outweigh technical considerations in determining the quality of presence experiences. As immersive technologies become increasingly prevalent in shared environments and sensitive contexts such as education and healthcare, this more sophisticated understanding of presence becomes crucial for designing effective virtual experiences. We argue that future VR development should shift from a predominantly technology-centered approach to one that carefully considers these psychological and social dimensions to achieve intended outcomes while accounting for individual and cultural variability.

Can artificial intelligence improve clinical trial design? Despite their importance in medicine, over 40% of trials involve flawed protocols. We introduce and propose the development of application-specific language models (ASLMs) for clinical trial design across three phases: ASLM development by regulatory agencies, customization by Health Technology Assessment bodies, and deployment to stakeholders. This strategy could enhance trial efficiency, inclusivity, and safety, leading to more representative, cost-effective clinical trials.

Here I propose the ‘Creation Game’, inspired by the Turing test, to assess the capacity of artificial intelligence for human-like creativity, focusing on its potential for scientific discovery about the human immune system in the field of systems vaccinology.