Machine learning and 3D printing yield steel-strong, foam-light materials
phys.org
Researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have used machine learning to design nano-architected materials that have the strength of carbon steel but the lightness of Styrofoam.
  • LughOPMEnglish
    1•4 days ago

    “For example, if you were to replace components made of titanium on a plane with this material, you would be looking at fuel savings of 80 liters per year for every kilogram of material you replace,” adds Serles.

    I’m impressed by two things here. That something so light could replace titanium, and that it was discovered by AI.

    • @just_another_personEnglish
      9•3 days ago

      It’s not “discovered by AI”. It’s not a novel idea that a model spit out, rather, because that’s not a thing.

      They generate large permutations of already know data and combinations of things and have these models validate math and test a massive amount of variables very quickly. It’s just quick sorting, essentially, which is all AI is really good for. Pretty sure they didn’t want to get laughed at for aaying"AI", which is why they used “machine learning” in the title anyway.

      • @stetechEnglish
        1•3 days ago

        Pretty much this. A lot of people nowadays conflate AI to mean LLMs, but this model almost certainly had no “language” part…