Google DeepMind, the tech giant's AI unit, has signed an agreement with the UK government to build its first ever automated laboratory in the country for ‘identifying transformative new materials’. The company says its new lab will be set up in 2026 and will be built from the ground up to be fully integrated with Gemini.
The new lab will employ a multidisciplinary team of researchers and world-class robotics to synthesise and characterise hundreds of materials per day.
DeepMind says this will significantly shorten the time required for discovering new materials. The company also noted that its focus will be on finding materials that can reduce costs and enable new technologies like superconductors for low-cost medical imaging, advanced batteries, next-generation solar cells, and more efficient computer chips.
“Discovering new materials is one of the most important pursuits in science, offering the potential to reduce costs and enable entirely new technologies,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said in a blogpost.
As part of the partnership, Google will also provide UK scientists with priority access to four of its specialised "AI for Science" models. This includes AlphaEvolve for designing algorithms, AlphaGenome for understanding DNA, WeatherNext for advanced weather forecasting, and AI Co-Scientist which acts as a virtual scientific collaborator.
Google collaborates with UK AI Security Institute:
Google DeepMind also stated that as part of the partnership it will begin sharing its proprietary AI models and data with the UK AI Security Institute to "accelerate research progress" and tackle complex safety challenges. The institute was set up in late 2023 to help mitigate the risks from advanced AI systems.
The company also says it will work with the AI Security Institute to monitor an AI system’s "thinking" process, commonly known as its Chain of Thought (CoT), to help researchers understand how an AI model arrives at its answers. They will also be working on understanding the impact of AI systems on the long-term labour market and economy.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement the UK government said that the new partnership with Google DeepMind will help turn ‘cutting-edge AI into real benefits for people’. UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the partnership will also help unlock “cleaner energy, smarter public services, and new opportunities”.
“DeepMind serves as the perfect example of what UK-US tech collaboration can deliver, a firm with roots on both sides of the Atlantic backing British innovators to shape the curve of technological progress,” Kendall said.
“This agreement could help to unlock cleaner energy, smarter public services, and new opportunities which will benefit communities up and down the country,” she added.