Consider this the ScholarXIV manifesto...
We move really fast, we build a lot of tools and products across the board and we know a lot of you have noticed cause you've all told us about it. But there's a reason we're moving fast and it's the grand vision we have. We're not there yet, but we want to get there asap.
Even though we are building a lot of specialized tools and services, we don't ever intend for them to be separate and organized in some UI like the current state. That was never the goal and if we keep on doing that we're definitely going to run out of navigation space in the UI. So what are we doing?
We are building and polishing all these tools to the best of our abilities so that they will end up as one of the hundreds of tools we expose to the core of our product which is the ScholarXIV research agent. That is our main product, everything we've been polishing and building, making humans use and getting feedbacks about, is for this research agent at the core of ScholarXIV.
We don't really want you to go to the side bar, click on Science, upload your DNA data, visualize it and then get a few information about it. What we really envision is one chat page where you can upload and attach different content and for it to dynamically adopt and use the tools we've given it to visualize, explore, dive deeper. Ultimately we want every tool interface to just merge and be absent from the navigation so that using them can be as simple as just texting the ScholarXIV research agent.
We think exposing our research agent to all these powerful tools helps it perform incomparably better at our grand goal of building a complete autonomous research agent that is capable of discovering new and fascinating things in the world. Our agent will be able to take a simple idea, read the current scientific literature, use the specialized science and engineering tools, use it's dedicated sandbox, run simulations, iterate and autonomously research, experiment, document and publish it's findings.
We've got an excellent web experience, a desktop app, a cross platform mobile app, a wonderful telegram bot and a few more. These are all just interfaces, they are a means for you to access this research agent at the core of ScholarXIV. An agent that can autonomously research and experiment, can easily do all your daily tasks too, perhaps even much more efficiently and better than most other agents.
Building a more agentic and autonomous agent is a long journey, but it's what we're really focused on and we want to get there as fast as we can and that requires building a lot, managing lots of feedback, a lot of test and experiments. So that's the grand goal that has gotten us chasing hard.
We started with a simple research paper explorer, then a library builder, then we added AI integrations, then gave the AI tools, then we pursued different fields... At first only humans could work in ScholarXIV, eventually it became a place where a human and an AI agent can cowork at.
Then it will be a place where an autonomous AI agents can research at. Finally when we've done it right, this incredible autonomous agent is for everyone to use and access. Eventually we want to make ScholarXIV the most advanced daily AI everyone uses. That's the big goal.
With memory built in, durable workflows and more implemented ScholarXIV will be much more agentic, proactive and personalized than it is right now and will be accessed through the same interfaces you use to access ScholarXIV today.
Imagine all the two thousand people using ScholarXIV having access to such a powerful and sophisticated research agent and harness. Imagine how small everyday questions could lead to incredible discoveries and advancements in our knowledge as a society.
So far we've only given some of the smartest people among us resources and tools to test out their theories, experiments, iterate and break things. But with ScholarXIV we're giving a highly specialized research lab to every single person that signed up... and I think that's going to change, fix and improve a lot of things in the world.
