At present, the world is at the beginning of a new scientific revolution and on the eve of a new round of disruptive technology. Since it was first proposed in 2018, AI for Science, as a new scientific research paradigm, has reached consensus in the academic community. The leading scientific research teams around the world have achieved fruitful results, demonstrating the great value of AI for scientific research.
Tian Zhongqun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary director of the Ka Geng Innovation Laboratory, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhuanet that AI has brought revolutionary influence to the field of electrochemistry. The empowerment of new technologies has improved the efficiency of scientific research, effectively promoted the original innovation of scientific research, and helped China achieve a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance.
AI for Science Initiates New Paradigm of Scientific Research
Tanaka Qun said that from the perspective of basic scientific research, machine learning has created possibilities for theoretical calculation. The refinement of algorithms and the improvement of computing power have greatly improved the computing efficiency.
For example, Tanaka Qunda said that doing basic scientific research is like being on an island with only cliffs but no path. Now, AI provides a tool to help researchers have the opportunity to ride the waves and climb the cliffs. "I used to think that we could not see the development of science to a certain height in our lifetime. Now, with the help of new tools provided by AI, we see hope that basic scientific researchers have the opportunity to achieve goals that were once difficult to achieve."
Tanaka Qun predicted that scientific researchers may make a major breakthrough in basic research in a shorter time than expected, raising scientific research to an unprecedented height.
"We need to see the essence. The essence of AI is to bring significant progress and new opportunities for scientific research." He said.
At present, the application needs in the fields of material science, energy, drug research and development are leading AI for Science, a new scientific research paradigm, to constantly break through and innovate. Among them, the combination of AI and electrochemistry, AI for Electrochemistry (AI4EC), as a practical representative direction of scientific intelligence, has attracted wide attention.
Turning to the research field of energy chemistry, Tanaka Qun said that our country is currently opening up a new energy race track. New energy is a very complex system and has strong relevance to upstream, midstream and downstream industries.
He said that at present, electrochemical research needs to solve the problem of new energy industrialization. To be specific, on the one hand, it is very difficult to integrate wind and solar energy into the power grid. New large-scale energy storage technology, namely battery energy storage based on electrochemical energy, is required. On the other hand, if safety problems occur in new energy storage power plants, especially in large energy storage power plants, the consequences will be very serious. The electrochemical oriented AI technology provides more guarantees for energy security, and can better detect, control, feedback and control.
"This is an unknown track, and the road ahead is not smooth. It seems that it is very difficult to conquer peaks in the mountains. It will take countless attempts. We have been thinking about and developing some new tools, new research methods and even new research paradigms. Human intelligence has brought great opportunities," he said.
The Ka Geng Innovation Laboratory in the charge of Tanaka Qun also saw this opportunity and established the Laboratory of AI for Electrochemistry (AI4EC Lab) in cooperation with the team of academicians of the AI for Science Institute, Beijing, and E Weinan.
It is reported that the joint laboratory will make efforts in three directions in the future. First, artificial intelligence will assist the development of electrochemical theory and algorithm, with the goal of building an intelligent material design platform; The second is the development of the theory and algorithm of artificial intelligence aided computational spectroscopy combined with the condition characterization technology, with the goal of building an automated multi-mode spectrum analysis platform; The third is to further provide the energy equipment industry with application solutions combining software and hardware.
The combination with AI has brought higher efficiency, accuracy and innovation ability to the evaluation and characterization of new energy materials. First, AI can accelerate the process of data processing and analysis; Secondly, AI technology can promote multi-scale material simulation and modeling; Thirdly, from the perspective of experiment, AI technology can help design intelligent experimental schemes, improve experimental efficiency and reproducibility of results. These changes will promote the rapid development and innovation in the field of new energy materials.
Tanaka Qun believes that new technologies and methods have brought abundant opportunities for basic scientific research, accelerated scientific discovery, promoted interdisciplinary cooperation and innovation, and promoted intelligent experiment and simulation.
He cited, for example, in the battery energy storage system, the collection, processing and feedback of parameters involve massive data, and rely on traditional manual processing methods, which should be calculated as "days" at the earliest. But for AI, a few hours, minutes or even seconds may be enough.
"AI can help us quickly identify problems, analyze problems, feed back problems, and actively control them to form a closed loop and effectively improve safety and efficiency. In the new energy and new track, AI is indispensable. It can be predicted that in the future, AI will more vigorously and comprehensively support the development of electrochemistry and energy electrochemistry, and help to open up new energy tracks in China." Tanaka Qun said.
Serve the energy revolution and promote the development of science and technology industry
When AI for Science infrastructure construction is gradually completed, the next step will be to accelerate the interdisciplinary development, improve scientific research efficiency, speed up original innovation, promote the emergence of original innovation achievements in chemistry, materials, energy, life sciences and other fields, and further promote China's self-reliance in high-level science and technology.
As one of the first four provincial innovation laboratories in Fujian, the Kageng Innovation Laboratory aims to build a laboratory with world influence through innovative systems and mechanisms, pooling global innovation resources, and making contributions to supporting China in building a world science and technology power.
According to Tian Zhongqun, the Kahkee Innovation Laboratory has two missions. One is to become a major platform for China's science and technology industry, which requires building a large science and technology team with international advantages and a large scientific device with international leadership, serving China's energy revolution and contributing to shaping the country's new energy landscape. The second is to promote the development of science and technology industry. In the future, the Kageng Innovation Laboratory will be committed to further promoting the breakthrough and application of industrial core technology bottlenecks.
Tanaka Qun said that AI for Science is one of the directions with cross disciplinary attributes. To take advantage of cross disciplinary advantages, Chinese researchers can strengthen the establishment of cross disciplinary teams, build cross disciplinary platforms, promote cross disciplinary training and education, encourage researchers to participate in cross disciplinary research, formulate reasonable plans, and build a sound cross disciplinary research system, To produce more original results.
In his view, communication and collaboration are crucial in this process. In this regard, AI also provides excellent assistance. In fact, as an information provider, AI not only provides new technologies and new research means, but also can help scientific research groups, upstream, midstream and downstream of the industrial chain to conduct efficient, direct and comprehensive communication and exchange.
"The self-reliance and self-improvement of high-level science and technology represents not the self-reliance and self-improvement of an individual, but the self-reliance and self-improvement of a scientific research group on a large platform. Although we have an excellent scientific research team and a large industrial team, we must integrate all forces and coordinate well to be strong," said Tanaka Qun.
"Any scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution will take a long time to brew, and not everyone is lucky to meet such an opportunity when they are in their prime." In Tanaka Qun's opinion, today's young scientific researchers are very lucky, because they have just entered the wave of scientific development, with new opportunities and unlimited possibilities in the future. "Scientific researchers need to keenly observe and grasp the trends and opportunities of scientific and technological development, not stick to the original track, but have the courage to break through the boundaries of the existing knowledge system, combine new technologies and methods, and try to solve various complex problems and face new scientific and technological challenges through interdisciplinary integration."
