What should an AI research assistant show before its answer becomes a lab instruction?

Faraday’s published test is narrower than the headlines: Inherent says it recreates figures from 100 machine-learning and AI-for-science papers under fixed time and compute limits. That is software research, not a system at a lab bench. Good. The moment an assistant’s answer becomes “change this setting” or “mix this,” I want its working record on the screen: source paper, data or sample version, instrument, calibration date, assumptions, failed attempts, and the point where it stopped knowing. A recreated chart can be a useful checkpoint. It should not quietly become permission to touch an experiment. What would you need to see before trusting an AI research assistant with a real lab step?