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AI Material Breakthroughs & The Missing Modality

September 17, 2026 · 48 min

Show notes

From leaderboard battles to autonomous labs—rethinking industrial AI, physical data, and the future of how we think.

In this episode, we dive deep into the evolving landscape of industrial AI—from the fierce competition on model leaderboards to the real-world impact of open versus closed AI systems. We question whether it’s necessary to follow every new model or if specialization is the future, using examples from industrial time series and the latest in material science. Alongside our guest Alexander Hammer from Dunia, we explore how AI and autonomous labs are accelerating the discovery of next-generation materials, bridging the gap between simulation and reality. As we reflect on what it means to 'think' in AI—beyond just language or images—we challenge listeners to consider the missing modalities shaping tomorrow’s technology. Join us for insightful stories, candid debates, and a glimpse into the frontier where AI meets the physical world.

Thanks to our Partner NXAI

OPN by WITRON

OpenAI

https://openai.com/

Anthropic

https://www.anthropic.com/

Google Gemini

https://gemini.google.com/

Meta

https://ai.meta.com/

Quen (Zhipu AI)

https://www.zhipuai.cn/

Alibaba

https://damo.alibaba.com/labs/ai/

DeepSeek

https://deepseek.com/

Grok (xAI)

https://x.ai/

Siemens

https://www.siemens.com/global/en.html

NVIDIA

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/ai-data-science/

Simcon

https://www.simcon.com/

Fraunhofer Society

https://www.fraunhofer.de/en.html

Dunia

https://www.dunia.ai/

Max Welling

https://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/m.welling/

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