Page 158 - CW E-Magazine (31-10-2023)

News from Abroad

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Japanese scientists say GPT-4 shows promise in aiding

chemistry research, but limitations remain

GPT-4, the latest version of the arti- cally been trained on. Overall, it was
ficial intelligence (AI) system from able to outperform some existing com-
OpenAI, the developers of Chat-GPT, putational algorithms, but fell short
demonstrates considerable usefulness against others.
in tackling chemistry challenges, but
still has significant weaknesses. “The results indicate that GPT-4 can
tackle a wide range of tasks in chemical
GPT-4, which stands for Generative research, spanning from textbook-level
Pre-trained Transformer 4, belongs to knowledge to addressing untrained
a category of large language models problems and optimising multiple vari-
within the field of AI. These models capabilities, the researchers set the sys- ables,” said Mr. Hatakeyama-Sato. “In-
can gather and analyse vast quantities tem a series of chemical tasks focused evitably, its performance relies heavily
of information to solve user-defined on organic chemistry. These covered on the quality and quantity of its train-
problems. A notable advancement with basic chemical theory, the handling ing data, and there is much room for
GPT-4 is its capability to utilise both of molecular data, predicting the pro- improvement in its inference capabili-
text and image data for analysis. perties of chemicals, the outcome of ties,” he noted.
chemical processes and proposing new
“It has a notable understanding of chemical procedures. The researchers emphasised that
chemistry, suggesting it can predict and their work was only a preliminary in-
propose experimental results in ways The results of the investigation vestigation, and that future research
akin to human thought processes,” said were varied, revealing both strengths should broaden the scope of the trials
chemist, Mr. Kan Hatakeyama-Sato, and significant limitations. GPT-4 dis- and dig deeper into the performance of
at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. played a good understanding of general GPT-4 in more diverse research sce-
Mr. Hatakeyama-Sato and his colleagues textbook-level knowledge in organic narios. They also hope to develop their
have discussed the potential of GPT-4 chemistry. It was weak, however, when own large language models specialising
in chemical research in the journal set tasks dealing with specialised con- in chemistry and explore their integra-
Science and Technology of Advanced tent or unique methods for making tion with existing techniques.
Materials: Methods. specific organic compounds. It displayed
only partial efficiency in interpreting “In the meantime, researchers
Although the specific datasets used chemical structures and converting should certainly consider applying
for training GPT-4 have not been dis- them into a standard notation. One in- GPT-4 to chemical challenges, possibly
closed by its developers, it has clearly teresting feat was its ability to make using hybrid methods that include
learned a significant amount of detailed accurate predictions for the properties existing specialised techniques,” said
chemistry knowledge. To analyse its of compounds that it had not specifi- Mr. Hatakeyama-Sato.

REWARDING INNOVATION
In-cosmetics Asia 2023 awards finalists announced

In-cosmetics Asia has announced The 20 shortlisted ingredients se- the greatest number of entries, closely
the shortlist for this year’s ‘Innovation lected by a panel of judges, will vie followed by haircare and suncare.
Zone’ awards celebrating cosmetic sci- for the ‘Innovation Zone Best Active Skincare submissions featured a wide
ence excellence across the Asia-Pacific Ingredient’ and ‘Innovation Zone Best range of active ingredients and green
region. The leading cosmetic ingredi- Functional Ingredient’ awards. solutions that cater to the diverse and
ents trade fair will be held in Bangkok evolving needs of consumers across
from November 7-9. Skincare products top the list for the region. Qualifying ingredients

158 Chemical Weekly October 31, 2023

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