Machine learning could vastly speed up the search for new metals

The team managed to find these new metals through a combination of AI and lab experiments. First, they had to overcome a significant challenge: a lack of existing data they could use to train the machine-learning models. They trained the models on the data they had--several hundred data points describing the properties of existing metal alloys. The AI system used that data to make predictions for new metals that would exhibit low invar. The researchers then created those metals in a lab, measured the results, and fed those results back into the machine-learning model.