Microsoft AI discovers 18 new battery materials in two weeks
Using AI and cloud computing, Microsoft was able to identify promising new battery materials for the Department of Energy (DoE) — in a fraction of the time it would usually take.
The challenge: Batteries are an essential part of the clean energy future. We need them to power electric vehicles and to store energy from solar and wind.
Currently, lithium-ion batteries are our best option for both of these uses, but they aren’t ideal. Because lithium is relatively scarce, it’s also expensive, and the metal is often unethically mined using child labor and environmentally destructive processes.
“It’s always trial and error,” Vijay Murugesan, head of the Material Sciences Group at the DoE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), told Fast Company.
“Something comes up in my dreams or the shower, and then I come in and spend two years testing whether it works or not, and then you go back and do that cycle again for a decade,” he continued. “The success rate is not that great, to be honest.”
