The US Army concludes two contracts to innovate its materials through IA

The US has concluded two contracts with SandboxAQ, with the aim of utilizing IA to discover new materials for its tanks and batteries as well as to improve its supply lines. The first contract is with the Army’s DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center and seeks to utilize SandboxAQ’s experience in simulating molecular interactions in the pharmaceutical field to speed up the process of discovering new alloys to make tanks lighter. Doing this could bring a 20-to-50 percent decrease in time to the process. The second contract is with the Army Futures Command’s C5ISR Center and aims to understand advanced battery chemistry, designs for diverse applications, and figure out how to improve their performance, safety, and capacity. Utilizing AI for material discovery could also improve the efficiency of long and vulnerable supply lines, as, in theory, it could allow building prototypes from local materials closer to the front lines. This could go as far as allowing for the use of 3D printers to manufacture something with a new type of compound.