An autonomous system that combines robotics with artificial intelligence (AI) to create entirely new materials has released its first trove of discoveries. The system, known as the A-Lab, devises recipes for materials, including some that might find uses in batteries or solar cells. Then, it carries out the synthesis and analyses the products — all without human intervention. Meanwhile, another AI system has predicted the existence of hundreds of thousands of stable materials, giving the A-Lab plenty of candidates to strive for in future.
Together, these advances promise to dramatically accelerate the discovery of materials for clean-energy technologies, next-generation electronics and a host of other applications. “A lot of the technologies around us, including batteries and solar cells, could really improve with better materials,” says Ekin Dogus Cubuk, who leads the materials discovery team at Google DeepMind in London and was involved in both studies, which were published today in Nature1,2.
“Scientific discovery is the next frontier for AI,” says Carla Gomes, co-director of the Cornell University AI for Science Institute in Ithaca, New York, who was not involved in the research. “That’s why I find this so exciting.”
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