Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)

This special crosspost features a16z General Partner Anjney Midha in conversation with Periodic Labs co-founders Liam Fedus (OpenAI, ChatGPT) and Ekin Doğuş Çubuk (Google DeepMind), who recently secured a $300M investment. They discuss their ambitious mission to build automated physical laboratories that connect AI-generated hypotheses directly to real-world experiments, aiming to teach AI scientific intuition and accelerate discovery, with a north star of finding a high-temperature superconductor. The conversation delves into the human and organizational strategies for building such an "AI for Science" company, emphasizing curiosity, cross-disciplinary learning, and a culture that prioritizes mission alignment over traditional credentials. Listeners will gain insights into how Periodic Labs plans to commercialize their advancements and foster broader scientific contributions, driving a future where AI deeply understands the physical world.

Read the full transcript here: https://storage.aipodcast.ing/cache/combinedtranscript-20251002T100327544Z.html

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