Can AI speed up the discovery of new materials? Army aims to find out

The U.S. Army hopes AI can shorten its hunt for new materials: alloys that make tanks lighter, chemicals that make batteries last longer, even 3D-printers that replace long supply lines with a forward-deployed workbench. It will explore the idea through two new contracts with SandboxAQ, an Alphabet spinoff.

The first contract is with the Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, which makes armored vehicles. 

“Right now, the challenge that the Army has is that everything that they own weighs too much and has to go by ship,” said Jen Sovada, the president of SandboxAQ's Global Public Sector division. “What they're looking for is: how do they continue to advance in their material science so that they can have lighter weights with the same level of survivability, be less toxic, probably more eco-friendly, and all of the other constraints that they have on trying to create vehicles.” 

Currently, the Army hunts for useful new metal alloys the old-fashioned way, Sovada said.

“What they do is, they just put molecules together. They create the molecule, then they have to test it live, you know? They have to create the actual compounds,” she said. 

SandboxAQ’s work in pharmaceuticals showed that AI can be used to simulate molecular interactions, greatly speeding up the process of discovery, Sevada said.

“It could cut two to five years off of this process if the process takes an average of 10 years to do it. So you're looking at, you know, 20-to-50-percent decrease in time,” she said. “AI for physics, chemistry, biopharma, finance, and other things are really going to accelerate how we look at problems and how we're able to solve problems.”

A second contract is with the Army Futures Command’s C5ISR Center. 

“They want to understand advanced battery chemistry, designs for diverse applications, looking at electronic vehicles, UAVs, portable power supplies, and to figure out how do they improve on their performance, their range, their safety, fast charging—even things like how long can it sit on a shelf without losing its capability,” Sovada said.

A broader aspiration is that AI for material discovery could help the Army with a much larger problem: long and vulnerable supply lines, which are especially concerning in the Pacific. In theory, it might be possible to build prototypes from local materials closer to the front lines, similar to the way Ukraine is looking to shorten the supply chain between weapons manufacturers and operators.

“Yes, it could, absolutely,” Sovada said. “You just need to have the manufacturing capability there for whatever it may be. But you could look at it based on the molecular compounds that you're building and it could be: how do you manufacture something that's 3D-printed with a new type of compound and create the filament that goes into it, for example.”

The Army confirmed the contracts.

 “The U.S. Army Futures Command works with teammates and partners to implement continuous transformation to ensure future war-winning readiness. Agreements support our efforts to partner with collaborators and advance research and development. Efforts to advance alloy material development and next generation power solutions ensure the Army can adapt to the demands of future warfare faster than any possible enemy,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement.