Tetsuwan Scientific Is Building AI-Powered Robotic Scientists That Can Carry Out Experiments

Tetsuwan Scientific, a San Francisco-based startup, is building artificial intelligence (AI) robotics that can perform the tasks of a scientist. The co-founders, CEO Cristian Ponce and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Théo Schäfer, brought the startup out of stealth in November after a successful seed round funding. The company aims to build intelligent software that can be integrated with lab robotics to automate the entire process of scientific discovery and invention, right from creating a hypothesis to running experiments, and drawing conclusions.

Building AI-Powered Robotics Scientists

Founded in 2023, the startup was working in stealth for the last year-and-a-half to build its first product — an AI scientist that can run experiments. It is now out of stealth and is currently working with La Jolla Labs in RNA therapeutic drug development. On its website, the startup has detailed its vision and the first product it is working on. Notably, it does not have any products in the public domain yet.

Highlighting the problem statement it aims to solve, the startup says that automation in science is focused on high volume of experiments instead of a high variety. This is because lab robots currently require extensive programming to replicate specific protocols. However, this has led to creation of a system that creates assembly lines instead of robots that can be assistant to scientists, the company said.

Tetsuwan Scientific stated that the problem is that robots cannot understand the scientific intent, and thus, cannot carry out an experiment on its own. However, looking at generative AI models, the company says, it is now possible to bridge this communication gap and teach robots how to act like a scientist. It is a two-pronged problem that requires an intelligent software combined with a versatile robotics hardware.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Ponce highlighted that large language models (LLMs) can bridge the software gap by allowing developers to communicate scientific intent to a robot without the requirement of writing thousands of lines of code. The CEO highlighted that the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework can also help in keeping AI hallucination down.

As per the publication, Tetsuwan Scientific is building non-humanoid robots. These robots, also showcased on the website, are large square shaped glass-like structure that are said to evaluate results and make changes to scientific experiments without requiring human intervention. These robots are said to be powered by AI software and sensors to gain knowledge about technical standards such as calibration, liquid class characterisation, and other properties.

Notably, the startup is currently in the initial stages towards its ultimate goal of building independent robotic AI scientists that can automate the entire scientific process and invent things.