AI Scientists Are Here: Autonomous Labs & Synthesis Superintelligence — Periodic Labs

Periodic Labs is building AI systems aimed at discovering new materials. In this Latent Space interview, Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk of Periodic Labs explain why, according to the episode description. The company's bet is that the next frontier of AI will come from letting models experiment with the real world rather than from training on more internet data.

The stated reasoning is that science differs from math and coding because evidence is noisy and incomplete. Simulations such as density functional theory, a physics-based way to estimate material properties, are listed alongside the claim that experiments remain the ultimate ground truth. Failed experiments may be especially valuable training data, and the aim is models that learn from the whole process of doing science, not only its published results. Targets mentioned include superconductors, magnets and batteries.

These are the episode's framing as summarized by its publisher. No transcript is available, so the evidence behind them is not shown. Related coverage of the company includes a Stanford talk by its cofounders.