The Materials Genome Initiative and artificial intelligence

The Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) seeks to accelerate the discovery, design, development, and deployment of new materials through the creation of a materials innovation infrastructure. This infrastructure is essentially a system for providing data and tools that encapsulate our existing knowledge about materials, and the means to create new knowledge. Given this approach, MGI is also deeply linked to the ongoing exponential growth in applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to materials research. This article explores the connections between MGI, the consequent need for data publication, the implications for data-driven science, and the application of AI to materials design. Examples will demonstrate how materials research is transforming in remarkable ways, and that the MGI vision of accelerated materials discovery is within reach.