Periodic Labs, the new young startup from ex-OpenAI and DeepMind researchers, has come out of stealth mode with a record $300 million seed round. Backed by the venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, DST, Nvidia, Accel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos.
The vision of the company is to revolutionize the way experiments are conducted and construct AI-powered labs in which robots conduct experiments, accumulate information, and learn from the outcomes. The company aims to speed up the research timeline and reduce the time taken for discoveries to be made.
Founders with Deep AI and Research Background
Periodic Labs was founded by Ekin Dogus Cubuk and Liam Fedus, both of whom not only have rich background experience in artificial intelligence but also rich background experience in scientific research. Cubuk was the materials and chemistry team lead at Google Brain and DeepMind, where he contributed to GNoME, an AI application which discovered over two million new crystals in 2023 and opened up the prospect of future technologies.
Fedus held the position of Vice President of Research at OpenAI and was instrumental in launching ChatGPT and revealing the world’s first one trillion parameter neural network to the world as well. The experience and expertise of the founders are solid foundations on which Periodic Labs’ mission can stand.
A Team Built to Innovate
Periodic Labs’ team brings together people who have been researchers on significant AI and materials science research projects somewhere. This includes laying the groundwork for OpenAI’s agent Operator, as well as being part of Microsoft’s MatterGen, a large language model for materials discovery. Team members’ diverse background is situated for re-imagining how to automate research and venture into new frontiers of AI in science.
A Vision for Science’s Future
Periodic Labs imagines a future with AI scientists working fully autonomous labs with experiments, data analysis, and deriving knowledge leading to new discoveries and inventions. The first goal of the company is to achieve the kind of superconductors already developed but with superior performance and reduced energy requirements.
Periodic Labs also has ambitions far beyond materials. The company is looking to expand and pursue other fields, applying AI to study new ideas and drive innovation in many areas of science.
Potential Change to the Scientific World
Periodic Labs is creating a change in how scientific research can be conducted. The use of AI in experiments facilitates experimentation to be conducted simply, with experimental outputs reported at a faster and more effective rate. The consequences of such innovation may be quite extensive, especially in areas of the healthcare and energy industries. This type of innovation provides the potential for being capable of helping to solve the most difficult global issues and perform research at speeds and accuracy higher than ever before imaginable.
Looking Ahead
Periodic Labs has the ability to transform scientific studies if it is granted ample funding and a very good team of researchers. This firm is capable of introducing independent laboratories in the realm of scientific studies and unveiling another new era of studies.
The tale of Periodic Labs indicates the potential for revolution that artificial intelligence or AI has, it presents a future possibility for scientists, they will be autonomous lab systems that facilitate scientific discovery and reshape what we know and how we conduct science.
