A company called Lila Sciences aims to build scientific superintelligence to discover new science. The company wants to build artificial intelligence (AI) that handles tons of data and predicts things. This AI would also help scientists plan and run experiments. It would come up with ideas, and tests them in real labs. Lila wants to change how we discover things in life, chemical, and materials sciences.

The company raised $200 million from big investors like Flagship Pioneering and General Catalyst. Lila’s CEO Geoffrey von Maltzahn says that smart AI running the scientific method is a huge deal. The scientific method means guessing, testing, and learning. According to the company, Lila’s AI will do this at big scale and high speed, using robots to turn ideas into real results.

Noubar Afeyan, another founder, says humans still know little about the world’s rules. He thinks big experiments with AI can find new things. Lila’s platform, called Autonomous Science, mixes smart AI with robotic lab units. Humans guide it, but it runs experiments on its own. It’s already better than humans and other AI in some areas. For example, it made designed genetic medicines and found new antibodies. It also created cheap metals for green hydrogen and better materials for capturing carbon.

AI will design and run experiments

AI already digs up insights from data. Now, according to Lila’s team, it’s time for AI to design and run experiments.

The New York Times has covered the launch of Lila Science (unpaywalled copy). The article emphasizes that some big names have joined the company. George Church, a Harvard geneticist known for his pioneering research in genome sequencing and DNA synthesis, is Lila’s chief scientist. John Gregoire, a prominent researcher in new materials for clean energy, previously at Caltech, is Lila’s head of physical sciences research.

“It seems beyond anything I’m familiar with in scientific discovery,” says Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner David Baker as reported by The New York Times.

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