OpenAI executive leaves to start materials science AI startup

Liam Fedus, vice president of research at OpenAI, announced that he will leave the company to start an artificial intelligence startup focused on materials science. The news was first reported by The Information website, which Fedus then confirmed on social platform X and revealed its future plans.

Fedus said his undergraduate major is physics, so he hopes to apply artificial intelligence technology to this field. He emphasized that the application of AI in materials science is one of the important strategic directions of OpenAI, and his new company has also been supported by OpenAI, and the two parties plan to invest and cooperate in the future.

With the development of science and technology, the application of AI in the field of materials science has gradually become the focus. Fedus' new company will compete with Google DeepMind, Microsoft and other companies. In 2023, DeepMind announced that its AI system Gnome has discovered some crystals that can be used to make new materials, and Microsoft has also launched two material discovery AI tools, MatterGen and MatterSim. These advances demonstrate the potential of AI in scientific research.

However, some experts are skeptical about whether AI has real scientific discovery capabilities, believing that this field still faces many challenges. Fedus's resignation and the establishment of a new company have attracted widespread attention. It is worth looking forward to how the combination of technology and materials science will develop in the future.