S$150m initiative to speed up materials discovery in AI-powered lab

150 million Singapore dollars is being pumped into an AI-powered platform that can develop advanced materials at a fraction of the usual time taken. DPM Gan, who launched the Marvel AI Accelerator today, says the accelerator will deepen Singapore's industrial capabilities, develop new sources of growth. Dr. Marvin, or the large language model that powers it, is smart – so smart that it helps scientists plan experiments to create advanced materials. The materials then go into a self-driving lab, when robots like these test them rigorously – potentially up to several hundred samples per day. Marvel A.I. seeks to actually change the way we look at materials innovation. We want to compress the time of development from years all the way down to months. We're going to take the discovery process all the way to deployment process, thereby benefiting companies, creating industrially relevant solutions for them. The government wants to narrow the gap between what's made in a lab and what's used in real life, and it wants to do so faster so that industries can reap the rewards more quickly. Enterprises, including start-ups and SMEs, will gain access to the research expertise, infrastructure and validation capabilities that they need. This will create opportunities for industry partnerships, enterprise growth and new ventures. We will also develop talent with capabilities spanning material science, AI and automation, while creating good job opportunities for everyone. The advanced materials that leave the lab and go into the marketplace can eventually be used in things like semiconductors, batteries and energy storage, and even aircraft engines and seat parts. And that's why Marvel AI is working with industry and tech partners to apply innovation to real-world challenges. The entire process of looking for the different alloy compositions has never been a short process to begin with. So hoping that, you know, this collaboration with the Marvel AI will enable us to do things more efficiently. So in combination, both the materials and its performance and manufacturability will allow us to bring forward this engineering capacity in a much faster fashion. Enterprise Singapore says Marvel AI will strengthen Singapore's position as a global innovation node for advanced materials.