What is a self-driving lab? How AI is helping accelerate the fight against climate change

Inside a laboratory in the University of Toronto, a small group of scientists is working to develop new, faster ways to convert captured carbon dioxide into useful products – like ethanol, a biofuel, or ethylene, which is a component of a wide variety of plastic products from food packaging to carpets.

Part of the Acceleration Consortium, the Sinton Lab is what is called a self-driving laboratory. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to smartly, and more rapidly test new materials and molecules that could be used to tackle big problems like climate change.

Professor David Sinton has tasked the AI with predicting combinations of elements that are most likely to produce the results they want, based on the data his team members feed it.

As Alyssa Julie reports, the work they are doing is just one way AI is being used to find solutions in our fight against climate change.

RELATED: https://globalnews.ca/news/9657567/ai-canada-university-of-toronto-self-driving-lab-research-grant-acceleration-consortium/
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