AI Boosts Materials Discovery By 44% at Major US Lab

A study by MIT economist Aidan Toner-Rodgers found that AI-powered teams at a major US materials company discovered 44% more new materials and filed 39% more patents compared to teams using standard methods. The research was conducted at a corporate laboratory with over 1,000 scientists and tracked the implementation of a custom machine-learning system. The AI tool was deployed in 2022 and was pre-trained on crystal and molecular structure databases. The system combined graph neural networks with reinforcement learning. Top-performing scientists showed the greatest gains with AI assistance, while lower-ranked researchers saw minimal benefits. The AI-designed materials demonstrated higher novelty compared to human designs, based on patent text analysis. However, the company's secrecy limits independent verification of the results. University College London chemist Robert Palgrave expressed concerns about the lack of transparency. Researchers using AI reported lower job satisfaction, citing reduced creative involvement in the discovery process. Overall, the study suggests that AI can significantly enhance the discovery of new materials, but may also have negative impacts on researcher satisfaction.