Liam Fedus, OpenAI‘s vice president of postgraduate research, is leaving the company to found a startup to create artificial intelligence in the field of materials science.
Fedus’ plans were first reported by The Information. In a statement to X, Fedus confirmed the report and added a few additional details.
“I studied physics as an undergraduate, and I’m really looking forward to applying this technology there,” Fedus said in his statement. “Since AI for science is one of the most strategically important areas for OpenAI and the achievement of [artificial superintelligence], OpenAI plans to invest in and collaborate with my new company.”
Fedus’s firm will compete with Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and other companies in the nascent field of artificial intelligence materials science. In 2023, DeepMind announced that its Gnome AI system had found crystals that could be used to create new materials. More recently, Microsoft introduced a pair of material-discovery AI tools called MatterGen and MatterSim.
However, some experts are skeptical that modern AI is capable of truly new scientific discoveries.
