Can AI help find the next breakthrough material? One of my side quests on this long world trip has been chasing the answer to this question. AI-accelerated materials discovery is fascinating to me because the right material at the right time can revolutionize economy and society. Yet the process of material discovery has little changed from the 20th century: Sweaty, repetitive trial-and-error or dumb serendipity. In a prior video, I mentioned Periodic Labs, which raised $200 million from A16Z at a billion dollar valuation. But they are not alone in the space. In the United States, we have Orbital Materials and Radical AI. As well as Dunia Innovations and RARA Factory in Europe. I know there might be two or so more I haven't heard of. Not to mention DeepMind and Google doing work here as well. Are all of these guys chasing ghosts? Over the past few months, I have read some things and spoke to some people. In today’s video, some scattered thoughts on AI-accelerated material discovery. Is it real?
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