AI-proposed catalyst scoffed at by 12-year expert runs 1,000+ hours in clean hydrogen test
tw_killian · x · 2026-09-26
Lila Sciences shared early results from its autonomous science platform: while developing catalysts for clean hydrogen, its AI proposed chemistry that a scientist who had studied the exact reaction for 12 years was sure was wrong. That composition became the strongest lead, sustaining more than 1,000 hours of oxygen evolution with little loss of catalytic performance.
The skeptical scientist, John Gregoire (JG), left his Caltech research professorship to become Lila's Chief Autonomous Science Officer, building some of the world's most sophisticated automated labs.
The company notes that letting AI verify hypotheses in the real world requires a full stack: model-training infrastructure, lab orchestration software, and novel data-generating instruments — spanning life sciences, chemistry, and materials science.
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