Autonomous systems have enormous potential to speed up the production and development of

chemical products, but are not yet widely used, "According to Milad Abolhasani, the paper's
corresponding writer, and the North Carolina State University Assistant Professor of Chemical
Engineering. "These systems have two types of challenges: to find or create the right tool for accurate
and reproducible automatic synthesis; and to identify or develop a right "brain" or AI-directed decision-
making algorithm to effectively determine the best way for the target material to be synthesized. Our
Artificial Chemist research focussed my colleagues on the hardware issues. Our job nowadays focuses on
overcoming the problems of self-reliant decision-making."

Abolhasani's research comes from his finding that: a) several different AI instruments are available; b) it
is not always clear which tool is the most appropriate to some particular material synthesis problem;
and c) which tool to choose from would always need to be fine-tuned depending on the problem of
chemistry.

"Interest in the use of AI off-shelf modelling and optimization programs in chemical reactions has
recently been enhanced," said Abolhasani. "But these AI techniques off-the-shelf aren't all-in-one —
they're not all as useful at resolving any content synthesis challenge you'd like to solve.

"In the end, we want the best AI model architecture to find the best content formulation for your target
properties. Not only is the right material to be identified, but the best way to produce this material to
ensure the best combination of features possible. And depending on the content and difficulty of the
problem, the right AI model architecture can differ."

There is an AI focused approach to Abolhasani and his colleagues in order to find the best AI method for
each issue of material synthesis.

"To decide what AI instruments are most suited to tackling various kinds of material syntheses issues, it
would be impractical to do the thousands of experiments needed," Abolhasani says. "We therefore
needed a model which would mimic a real-world experimental microfluidic device to carry out millions
of tests for us effectively."

The researchers conducted a thousand trials on the Artificial Chemist model for the training of the
virtual experimental platform.

The new paper simulated over 600,000 tests and evaluated over 150 AI-led policy-making techniques in
the virtual laboratory. In the real world, even with automatic processes and micro content sizes, the
tests would require 7.5 years of robotic continuous working and 400 liters of reagent. If these
experiments were carried out. The team from Abolhasani did this in a month or so.

"We have trained our virtual laboratory effectively to choose the right AI tools for any synthesis of
material," said Abolhasani. "And each time we use those instruments, they become more effective and
help us overcome ever more difficult problems in chemistry and chemical engineering. In the end, we
believe that these AI-driven tools can be used easily enough to change operations in real time as
needed."